# Hive beetles--any advise appreciated



## river_rat2005 (Jan 19, 2009)

get you some beetle barns from rossmans and put combat roach jell in them it did the trick for me good luck


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## beemandan (Dec 5, 2005)

Put your hives in full sun.


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## db_land (Aug 29, 2003)

SHB were a bad problem for me last year and the year before. Last year I killed hundreds with the hive tool, but didn't lose any hives. This year about March I saw 3-10 beetles in several hives. After installing the traps I've only seen 2 or 3 living SHB total in about 35 hives.

These are all things that I did that may have helped:
1. Put all hives in full sun.
2. Put beetle barns with roach bait in each hive. I bought these from John Pluta. I removed these recently so maybe the beetles will come back.
3. Put the hive stands on top of weed-block (solid black plastic weave that lets water through). Mainly this was to help keep the hives clear of weeds and easier to work, but I suspect (no real evidence) that this also helps with the SHB.


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## pom51 (Jul 28, 2008)

I think that I read on this site about the beetles and someone was using a plexgalss top on his hive they said beetles didn't like the light the top was not clear .


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## KQ6AR (May 13, 2008)

Yes,
Theres a guy in florida, using a white opaque plexi top to let light in. He says leaving it on a week clears the beetles out of his hives. He had a letter in the American bee journal, & bee culture magazine.
Might be worth trying, when numbers get high.




pom51 said:


> I think that I read on this site about the beetles and someone was using a plexgalss top on his hive they said beetles didn't like the light the top was not clear .


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## chrisreedtn (Apr 11, 2010)

KQ6AR said:


> Yes,
> Theres a guy in florida, using a white opaque plexi top to let light in. He says leaving it on a week clears the beetles out of his hives. He had a letter in the American bee journal, & bee culture magazine.
> Might be worth trying, when numbers get high.




I look forward to trying this myself. But what I do is grab some of those political signs, (cortex) cut into squares ~2"X2", pack a little crisco on one open side, then fill from the other open side with boric acid. then cap off that open side with crisco. This is a fatbeeman meathod I learned from a local guy. the beetles are attracted to the crisco, and dig in... into the acid. I use as was reccomended to me.. 2 per hive body in opposite corners on top of the frames, works well. chemistrystore.com has the boric acid pretty cheap.


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## drupe (May 20, 2009)

try a mixture of 1oz wintergreen Essential Oil to 16 oz of vegetable oil. mix well and soak a cardboard coaster in it. one 3" coaster per broad box. the wintergreen oil drives the small hive beetles out and will also kill mites. I use this and it has almost eliminated the small hive beetles from my hives. Now i see maybe one or two per hive. Last year it seemed i raised more beetles than bees.


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## Tomatogurl (Apr 25, 2010)

Can you tell me where in the brood box you are placing the coaster?
thanks you!


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## drupe (May 20, 2009)

i place the coaster in the center on top of the frames. for a 5 frame nuc use only half of a coaster.


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## idav5d (Nov 24, 2008)

http://www.youtube.com/user/FatBeeMan#p/u/2/h_KDPp8H6PU


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## wdcrkapry205 (Feb 11, 2010)

drupe said:


> try a mixture of 1oz wintergreen Essential Oil to 16 oz of vegetable oil. mix well and soak a cardboard coaster in it. one 3" coaster per broad box. the wintergreen oil drives the small hive beetles out and will also kill mites. I use this and it has almost eliminated the small hive beetles from my hives. Now i see maybe one or two per hive. Last year it seemed i raised more beetles than bees.


I'd like comments from anyone that has tryed this...please


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