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  • From: David Fruch <dcfruch AT frontier.com>
  • To: Randall Austin <ra41717 AT gmail.com>
  • Cc: Orange County Beekeepers Association <ocba AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [ocba] Man with a hive beetle plan
  • Date: Wed, 26 Apr 2017 09:14:02 -0400

Have a look at a video on Youtube - Little Bits Honey Bees. The fellow is raising queens somewhere in the Deep South and has the problem of keeping mating nucs alive. His method looks very convincing although my equipment is so leaky I’m not sure it would work for me on whole hives.
dcf
On Apr 26, 2017, at 8:54 AM, Randall Austin <ra41717 AT gmail.com> wrote:

Re: "I actually painted my two hives with never wet when I was in NC and never had more than a handful of beetles at a time": I never have more than a handful of beetles at a time either and don't use special paint or traps. But I do curse at the beetles I see... could that be it? Maybe they get all depressed and leave. Or maybe correlation isn't causation. Or maybe the tips <here> help.

The You-Tube demonstration would have been a worthwhile exercise if the guy had used a side-by-side control. As it is, all we have to go on is his personal assurance that the beetles would have climbed onto the top black surface if given a chance. Really? That's easy enough to demonstrate if true... why not show us the difference?  Just do the same test with a separate box, exactly the same as the first one but without the metal strips. I'm not convinced those beetles were interested in going anywhere, and that feeling was reinforced by the guy having to poke them repeatedly to get them to move at all.

FYI, the metal strips, cut to purpose with wooden rims, are available for sale as a commercial product at bee supply stores. The ones I'm familiar with don't have the stay-wet paint on them. But the directions on those say the rims are the magic factor, no need for paint. So don't the rims work without paint? Or do we need rims and paint? Or do we need rims, paint and the next magical add-on? It makes me wonder.

Great ideas are only that without confirmation. And even when great ideas actually work, that doesn't mean they'll work at my house!

Randall


On 4/25/2017 9:08 PM, Caleb Haynes wrote:
Possibly. Worth a test, which wouldn't cost more than 20 bucks. However even if his specific method isn't the best he has discovered a weakness we may be able to exploit. A substance that the SHB cannot cross. I actually painted my two hives with never wet when I was in NC and never had more than a handful of beetles at a time. I thought it was a fluke or that my landlord had put some sort of pesticide in the surrounding ground before I moved in. Now I'm wondering if it was because I painted the entrance and the beetles had a difficult time accessing the hive. Couldn't get a grip lol.

On Apr 25, 2017 9:00 PM, "Brad Kosiba" <bradkosiba AT gmail.com> wrote:
Very entertaining, but I expect in a real hive they would eventually just fly up to the comb, they are very good flyers, even if they would rather walk.

Brad Kosiba

On Mon, Apr 24, 2017 at 3:58 PM, Caleb Haynes <calebthaynes AT gmail.com> wrote:
Have y'all seen this? 


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--
Bradley E Kosiba, PhD
Biochemist-Beekeeper-Gardener-Scouter
 


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