# Chandler "Eco Floor" and Small Hive Beetles



## warrior (Nov 21, 2005)

If you like rotten bottoms, fungus and ants go for it. Bees put down alot of moisture on top of our wet humid enviroment in the south. 
For the life of me I don't understand this desire to promote rot inside the hive to somehow simulate a rotten tree. I welcome anyone to go cut down a bee tree first before they go conjecturing on what actually goes on in a natural hive. If you do you'll see that the bees propolize the interior to the point of stopping rot and making things solid.


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## Michael Bush (Aug 2, 2002)

The biggest advantage to an "eco floor" would be the soil dwelling mites that live there and like to eat Varroa mites... I came up with one about 15 years ago but I wasn't that impressed with the results. I was more worried about the wax moth larvae at the time, but if you live in a small hive beetle area, I can't say how that would work out. What bugged me was that the bees (the way I set it up) didn't have access and so a lot of pests would hide on the other side of the screen (like wax moths and ants). But if I don't partition it off the bees may draw comb there. So when I try it again, I think I'm going to use 1/4" hardware cloth and not leave very much space (like maybe 1") before some dirt and crushed leaves. I would hope to encourage some of the 170 mites that live with bees and don't harm them to live there.

https://vimeo.com/63418711
http://www.arbico-organics.com/prod...ypoaspis-miles/Beneficial-Insects-Specialists
http://www.evergreengrowers.com/stratiolaelaps-scimitus-womersley-hypoaspis.html


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## dcnylund (May 28, 2015)

Thanks for the input everyone. I think that I'll forgo the "Eco Floor" for now due to the small hive beetle. If I lived in a different area I'd give it a try. I saw the idea posted somewhere of having the screened bottom between the hive and the "Eco Floor", but opening up some holes in the screen large enough to allow bees to access and patrol the lower area. The screening in between kept the bees from building comb down into the mulch material. 1/4' screening would work as well. Was also thinking of the "Eco Floor" in combination with beneficial nematodes.


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## Jon Wolff (Apr 28, 2013)

I'm a fellow Georgian (Augusta area) and built two hives with eco floors. Before I put the bees in, I realized the eco floors would become a beetle haven and turned them into screened traps instead, one with diatomaceous earth and one with a tub of mineral oil that spanned the length of the hive. They did a decent job eliminating beetles, but wax moths found the seams inviting. I ended up removing the additions and going with a solid floor. My other hives had screened bottoms, but those I also removed for solid ones. It's too hot and humid in my area for screens to be of much use for added ventilation, and when the bottoms were raised, the screens kept the bees from having access to the floor below, giving beetles a safe place to hang out.


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## DaisyNJ (Aug 3, 2015)

What if the hive bottom was open all the way to the ground (and bit deeper into it, like trench in may be 6 to 12 inch into ), still cover all 4 sides ?


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## Harley Craig (Sep 18, 2012)

don't know about eco floors in hives, but in the cutouts ive done I've found tons of wax moth and hive beetles in the detritus built up in the bottom of the cavities, and none of them had them up roaming on the comb. Granted these bottoms were sometimes several feet from the comb bottom. It appeared the bees ran them off the combs and they actually lived in harmony down in the bottoms.


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