# Are SHB a problem in New England?



## sqkcrk (Dec 10, 2005)

Mostly they aren't a problem for New England beekeepers. I'm in NY. I take my hives to SC for the winter and bring them North in May usually. I see SHBs in my hives when they are in SC sometimes. Sometimes I see some in the hives when they are in NY. I have never seen any damage to the hives. 

Most of the problems that migratory beekeepers experience w/ SHB occur in the Hot Room of the Honey House of those beekeepers. Small scale beekeepers shouldn't have the same problems since they would be working w/ fewer supers of honey and those supers would be in a hot room for a shorter period of time, if at all.


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## gman1001 (Sep 24, 2013)

tx!


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## sqkcrk (Dec 10, 2005)

ok


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## Ramona (Apr 26, 2008)

We have a friend here in Massachusetts who was running less than 20 colonies. His hives were suddenly overrun with small hive beetles. He couldn't understand what was happening until he learned that a migratory beekeeper had brought bees in and put them in the vacinity of our friend's bees.


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## sqkcrk (Dec 10, 2005)

Overrun? Enough to do damage? How many per hive? I've seen as many as 15 or 20 in hives in NY and not seen damage. These were in hives wintered in FL.


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## Ramona (Apr 26, 2008)

Overrun means some of them perished.


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## sqkcrk (Dec 10, 2005)

Wow. That's too bad.


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## BeeCurious (Aug 7, 2007)

gman1001 said:


> I'm in coastal CT


I first saw SHB's in the Greenwich CT area two years ago. We're hoping that this Winter will have been been cold enough to get rid of beetles for this year.


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## Saltybee (Feb 9, 2012)

Packages bring some in. I've seen a hive that was struggling already being over run to me with them. Probably 60 beetles in a hive down to 3 deep frames of bees. Just beginning to slime and not much brood rearing going on. (Too much time fighting beetles?) That hive was sitting next to the package hive. Added 3 frames bees/brood and the bees won the battle. See them, they do overwinter as well as get imported, not a problem as much as an annoyance.


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## clyderoad (Jun 10, 2012)

they are here on Long Island in SE New York. I keep an eye on them but haven't had any real issues yet.


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## BeeCurious (Aug 7, 2007)

> Packages bring some in.


The first shb's I saw were from nucs that someone bought made up from some brokerage/migratory colonies. 

For myself, besides queens, the last bees I bought were a couple of queenless packages in 2009. 

We used to joke about Small Hive Beetles.... It's not funny any more.


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## Leather Jim (Jun 30, 2013)

I don't know about the New England area but we have them in Northern Ohio. I don't even let them get started now,all my hives have sbb with oil trays under them.


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## clyderoad (Jun 10, 2012)

BeeCurious said:


> We used to joke about Small Hive Beetles.... It's not funny any more.


summer of 2013 not as bad as summer 2012. 2012 some beekeepers had slime outs due to them.
never really paid alot of attention to them here before 4-5 yrs ago.


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## wildbranch2007 (Dec 3, 2008)

On there own they are not to bad, when your neighbors hives crash, they can be a handful, spent over a month keeping them under control, when opening a hive it was like
lemmings running to the ocean, just lucky they didn't do any damage. I will let everyone know if a cold winter affects the # around this year.


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## JWG (Jun 25, 2004)

I have had them showing up in the hives here for over 4 years, and maybe longer.

2012 was bad indeed. I had SHB eventually overrun two of my newly made nucs (which had expensive new queens), which never built up and then absconded, POOF! The beetles were also apparent in the production hives, and other, stronger, nucs, although they didn't do any damage in those. 

Extracting in summer 2012 was a challenge and a rush, as SHB were running around in the harvested supers waiting to be extracted. By the time I got to the last ones there was some sliming and oozing of honey at the bottom of the stacks.

I feared that 2013 would be as bad, or probably worse!, but I saw few SHB all season and they didn't bother any of my nucs. Hmm.

I am very near Boston, no migratory beeks around here, and haven't bought package bees or nucs for years, so I still wonder why 2012 was so bad with SHB and where they came from. 

Hoping that 2014 will be relatively SHB free, too. Maybe this intense winter will knock them back.


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## wildbranch2007 (Dec 3, 2008)

one thing we have started doing is bringing a frame with brood and pollen into the honey house when we pull honey, note where you put it, and the next morning pull the super out side and start killing the shb, they seem to gravitate to that frame.


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## bluegrass (Aug 30, 2006)

Keep your hives good and strong and you don't have to worry about SHB North or South.


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## Michael Palmer (Dec 29, 2006)

I see SHB from time to time, when someone near one of my apiaries brings in bees from the south. The real issue in my area is in the hot room. Leave full supers in the hot room too long and there's trouble.


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## stripstrike (Aug 29, 2009)

sqkcrk said:


> Small scale beekeepers shouldn't have the same problems since they would be working w/ fewer supers of honey and those supers would be in a hot room for a shorter period of time, if at all.


I stored a stack of supers about two days too long last summer. SHB's make a real mess, real fast. I've seen them for a few years but never had a run in with them like last summer.

I'm not 100% sure where they came from, but they are in NE.


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## sqkcrk (Dec 10, 2005)

Well, I guess it appears as though beekeepers in New England States may have problems w/ SHBs. I guess I have just been lucky so far.


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## jredburn (Feb 25, 2012)

SHB can be controled with an oil bath beetle trap on the bottom board and a 1/4" Plesiglass cover in place of the top cover and inner cover. The beetles can't stand light and will run to the bottom to get away from it.
I use a solid bottom with a coating of sticky glue on it in place of the oil. A lot less mess and does not have to be level. I put an 1/8" wire mesh over the glue so the bees can't get in to it.


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