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ocba - [ocba] For what it's worth - unscientific test of inexpensive SHB trap

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Subject: Orange County, NC Beekeepers

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  • From: John Rintoul <beecd AT icloud.com>
  • To: Orange County Beekeepers Association <ocba AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: [ocba] For what it's worth - unscientific test of inexpensive SHB trap
  • Date: Sat, 01 Oct 2016 14:00:16 -0400

In the 'can't hurt, might help' school of beekeeping I read about someone who had placed an unscented, untreated Swiffer® pad in the hive to trap small hive beetles. I decided to give it a try in the empty supers that enclose my tank feeders.

Within a week the bees in one hive carried the pad down through the hive and dropped it on the ground in front of the entrance. Undeterred I tacked the Swiffer pad down so that the bees couldn't remove it. After 2 weeks I pulled the pad. I've attached pictures of side 1 and side 2 of one of the pads. There were also live SHB under the pad as I pulled it out. The bees had corralled them there.

The pad also caught a few bees, but most were able to extricate themselves. The SHB do not seem to be able to do so. They settle in and die.
image1.JPG

image2.JPG

John Rintoul
(919) 414-4071
No trees or bees were killed in the distribution of this message, but countless electrons were seriously inconvenienced.



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