# Anything New In Small Hive Beetle Eradication?



## Kidbeeyoz (May 8, 2013)

Hi! all. I was wanting to know if there was anything new in America for SHB control. 

In Australia we use oil, lime and diatomaceous earth traps, Apithor, spray outside the hives to kill the larvae and in our State of Queensland we have a scientist working on mycelium control of them.


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## John D. (Sep 5, 2007)

If there is, I have not heard or read about it. Most in my area use the oil traps under a screen bottom board that slides out from the rear. The small between the frame traps are popular also. I live in a coastal high humidity area so the diatomaceous earth did not work because it became firm from the humidity & the beetles just walk over it. Wish it would work here because it is not near as messy. I noticed early on that the beetles like to enter the hive from the top so I put window screen over any ventilation holes I have on the top. That forces them to go through the guard bees. I have used BT around the hives but we have a lot of ants which find a SHB larvae quite a feast. How does the Apithor & mycelium work?


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## Kidbeeyoz (May 8, 2013)

Here is a link re the mycelium which invades the cuticle of the SHB. I am not sure which strain our researcher is working on. http://www.google.com/patents/US20120237554

Apithor is a corflute cardboard arrangement which has been impregnated with Fipronil.

Recently I also saw somewhere where the bee lid was made of a clear plastic which emitted light into hive thus making it not conducive as a SHB harborage. I thought if you placed a sheet of corrugated iron over it it would still emit light into the hive and protect the hive from the solar heat.

We had a member of our bee group having to go to hospital for a lung condition caused by the inhalation of the SHB slime as he cleaned out the hives.

I think that the best solution is learning to make up replacement hives quickly to replace the lost ones and you Americans are expert at it through your Varroa encounter and CCD problems. Read recently where the Adee's in the States lost thousands of hives. Imagine the work and financial cost in restoring hive numbers. I do not know how these big beekeepers can keep going year after year which such financial huge outlays; a very understanding bank manager or is there some sort of Government assistance scheme that we do not know about?


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## rhaldridge (Dec 17, 2012)

That's very interesting. I'm not clear on what is being patented, however. Maybe the cultural method of incubating the mycelia? Surely they are not attempting to patent the actual organisms? It's hard to see how a naturally occurring species could be considered an "invention."

I guess I'm prepared to suffer disillusionment.


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## John D. (Sep 5, 2007)

Fipronil is an off label (not approved) product for bee hives here in USA but I have seen it used & it works great. The application I witnessed was in a "Beetle Barn". The bees will propolize it so you have to clean it frequently. Not near as messy as oil traps. I'm thinking about converting. Thanks for the link on mycelium.


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## Kidbeeyoz (May 8, 2013)

It took about 7 years from when we first got hive beetle in this country to get an approved chemical trap for the hive. Initially we had a quarantine area but eventually the SHB spread everywhere. Don't think we have ever had a pest or disease come into this country that we have been able to control. The Agricultural Departments make a bit fuss of things initially but then they let it go. 
800 miles to our north we have an invasion of Apis Cerana the asian bee. No doubt it will be down here within the next 5 years or so.

We have dodged the Varroa bullet so far but the experts say it is only a matter of when we get them.


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## max2 (Dec 24, 2009)

The beetle mat trap is sort of new http://www.qualitybeekeepingsupplies.com.au/index.php/catalogue-2/44-beetle-traps
And so is the use of Chux to trap the SHB.
I have been selecting my queens for their hygenic characteristics and it has been of some assistance


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## max2 (Dec 24, 2009)

Here is the information about Apithor - look at the Scientific articles : http://www.apithor.com.au/index.html
I don't use them. At this point I'm using traps with DE. I use the Beetle Blaster Traps http://ecologicalsolutions.com.au/bees/?page_id=8
I still have about 100 AJ beetle traps http://www.ajsbeetleeater.com.au/order.html
but the tops come off quite easily and the bees love to clog them up. The Beetle Blasters are made of a very smooth plastic and they are much cleaner to use.


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## MOMATT (May 14, 2010)

This isn't new, but this trap has prettly much controlled beetles in my hives. This is a video of the trap a few hours after installing. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X2YdpHgGVMw


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## kat hansen (Nov 17, 2012)

I am in North Idaho and three of us bought nucs from a guy who got them from California, a week after we installed them into our hives we found that they had SHB and returned them this morning, we want to get new nucs but aren't sure what we have to do to make sure we won't have a continuing problem. Since we had them here for such a short time is there anything we should do before putting new nucs in our hives?


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## John D. (Sep 5, 2007)

If you are in a region that has hive beetles you will get get them even though you might not have them immediately. There are numerous threads on remedies in the archives here plus I would goggle "hive beetle traps" & you will get a lot of reading including a lot of youtube. The mites are a threat but they work in slow motion compared to the beetles which can overwhelm a hive in a few weeks. The best defense is a strong populated hive.


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## kat hansen (Nov 17, 2012)

Thanks, It is not something we've had around here. The beekeepers I have talked to don't know anything about it. The guy we got the nucs from seems to think they were in a shipment he received from California. I will continue my search on you tube.


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## Gino45 (Apr 6, 2012)

I just read the part about beauveriana killing the hive beetle, as it kills the coffee bean borer here in Hawaii; however,
I'm wondering what is its effect on the bees that would also be exposed.

I tried the carboard squares on the top bars method. It will get some beetles, but the cardboard flutes need to be a large size. Much of the cardboard I looked at was too small, or is it that we have extra large beetles here?

Also, you need to be quick to grab the cardboard immediately upon opening the hive. I'm still working on what's best to do with it once grabbed.

And, FWIW, I can't see these humidity loving tropical beetles ever becoming a big problem in Idaho and similar climates.


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## kat hansen (Nov 17, 2012)

In all the reading I've done and the you tube videos I've watched it does look like they like the more humid areas. 
You might look at the you tube info that Fatbee man has. He has some ideas that might work for you using Boric Acid, it sounds like it's similar to the cardboard method your using but he caps the flutes off with Crisco after filling them with the boric acid. It's supposed to kill them, or some stuff call Diatomaceous Earth, that's something you dust the ground around the hives with and it works its way into the ground and kills the larvae and the adults that go into the ground. He says they work and they are cheap. 
We gave the bees back to the guy we bought them from and are getting new bees but are worried about any remaining larva in the frames. We are putting them in the freezer before we put them in with the new bees. The freezer killed what beetles we found in our hives. 
Thanks for the info


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## Remichi (Apr 6, 2013)

Here in Kenya I also have small hive beetles in our Kenya Top Bar Hive. It's very frustrating as there is little one can do to eradicate them it seems. 

We just transferred bees from a catcher box to the big hive so let's hope this colony will become a strong one.

See pictures of our beekeeping project at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/michisunited/sets/72157633275229728/


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## kat hansen (Nov 17, 2012)

Nice Pictures.
We're hoping that we have them taken care of now luckily here it sounds like we aren't humid enough for them. 
Good luck!


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## Jon Wolff (Apr 28, 2013)

I have three horizontal top bar hives. We have very humid summers, and SHB can be a big problem for hives here, too. With the exception of one hive, I'll usually see half a dozen whenever I check. The one hive that is (so far) clear of them has a special attachment to the bottom called a Deep Floor, an idea I got from Phil Chandler over in Biobees. His idea is to fill the DF with leaf litter and rotting wood to create a habitat for earwigs and other devourers of varroa, but I adapted it for SHB. In my design, the top of the DF has a lid that makes up the actual floor of the hive. This floor was cuts in it big enough for SHB but not bees to get through. Inside the DF there is diotamaceous earth covering the bottom, but the bottom board has small gaps big enough for SHB to climb into. Whenever I open the hive or unlatch the DF, I never see any live beetles, although there are some dead in the diotamaceous earth. I'm thinking the beetles may be trying to climb in through the gaps in the bottom board and go straight into the DE, or the bees chase them through the cuts in the hive floor/DF lid and they fall into the DE. Either way, it's working.


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## kat hansen (Nov 17, 2012)

Thanks for the idea, I've heard about the diotamaceous earth and was going to try it.


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## agrimm01 (Jun 5, 2012)

So will DE kill the bees? I had one hive get SHB really bad. The queen obviously was gone and I had 2 supers on. The SHB slimed the 2 supers and it's really disgusting.


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## max2 (Dec 24, 2009)

Careful when dealing with slimed hives.
This is the health warning in Australia:
Human health precautions 

slime outs are known to contain a yeast (Kodamaea ohmeri, a form of Candida guilliermondii) that has been associated very rarely with serious infections (fungal infections of the blood or heart valves) in people
it is not clear whether cleaning out slime outs poses a risk of infection
as a precaution, if you clean out an affected hive it is recommended you wear gloves and a mask (P2 or N95), cover any exposed broken skin with a waterproof dressing, then change your clothes and shower immediately afterwards
if you have a weakened immune system it is best not to clean affected hives
contact Queensland Health for further information


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## Jon Wolff (Apr 28, 2013)

Max2, thanks for the heads up.
Agrimm01, DE will kill bees, so you have to make sure they can't get into it.


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