# Small Hive Beetle



## mgmoore7 (Jul 6, 2007)

I had not heard that yet as a solution for SHB.

I just installed a West SHB trap. I have been many that they work well.


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## notaclue (Jun 30, 2005)

Here is a possible option.

http://www.beeworks.com/informationcentre/small_hive_beetle.html


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## wayacoyote (Nov 3, 2003)

I, too, haven't heard of this treatment. I also use the West Trap, and have fantastic success.

WayaCoyote


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## Jeffzhear (Dec 2, 2006)

wayacoyote said:


> I, too, haven't heard of this treatment. I also use the West Trap, and have fantastic success.
> 
> WayaCoyote


I was looking at the Dadant on-line catalog and it said that "periodically cleaning of the trap is necessary" How often do you do it and is it easy to do? Do you have to disassemble the hive to get to it? I'm thinking that it might serve me well to start thinking about this pest now before I have it.


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## Grant (Jun 12, 2004)

I used the West Trap, a little too late. Other posts suggest to use DE or lime. I used oil, and it seems to take a lot of oil to bring the level up to 1/2" and you need to keep your hive stand level. Others have said to try soapy water.

You have a host of options. I put my disastrous experience into a short narrative. If you'd like a copy, send me an e-mail to [email protected] and put "shb article" in the subject line. I'll send you a reply with the Word.doc as an attachment.

Prior to this year, I had adult beetles with little notice. This year...disaster. 

Grant
Jackson, MO


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## mobees (Jul 26, 2004)

*Shb*

A friend in GA gave me some advise.

Always keep your hives in full sun.
Never use Grease or Pollen patties when Beetles are active.
Open hives more frequently.
Kill as many as you can while inspections.
Keep yard Clean
They tend to pick hives to gang-tackle
Use CheckMite when things get out of hand in a bait hive
If you see larvae freeze the infected frames and shake all the bees


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## CSbees (Aug 7, 2007)

SHB is a nuissance, however I have yet to see any thing devastating. They are there, and I kill them when I see them. But, are they such a tragedy that a space for a whole frame that could have brood in it be taken up by a trap?


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## Beaches' Bee-Haven Apiary (May 22, 2007)

CSbees said:


> SHB is a nuissance, however I have yet to see any thing devastating. They are there, and I kill them when I see them. But, are they such a tragedy that a space for a whole frame that could have brood in it be taken up by a trap?


I've had success this year just keeping my bees strong and keeping their entrance reduced. I've tried traps, but haven't had good success. I also let my bees raise their own queens natually. I've found that they appear to be quite tolerable of the SHB. I'm sure the local bees have been exposed to SHB for a while now!

-Nathanael


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## CSbees (Aug 7, 2007)

It is a sight to see the bees "rounding up" or herding the beetles. I have even seen stinging of the beetles by bees on the underside of the beetle which is vunerable.


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## Beaches' Bee-Haven Apiary (May 22, 2007)

CSbees said:


> It is a sight to see the bees "rounding up" or herding the beetles. I have even seen stinging of the beetles by bees on the underside of the beetle which is vunerable.


Isn't that that the coolest thing?! Of course any attempt by my girls to kill those pests are cool with me!

-Nathanael


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## CSbees (Aug 7, 2007)

Me too. They're frustrating.


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## beemandan (Dec 5, 2005)

Beaches' Bee-Haven Apiary said:


> Isn't that that the coolest thing?! Of course any attempt by my girls to kill those pests are cool with me!
> 
> -Nathanael


It may not be as pretty a sight as one would think. Your bees usually have those shb sequestered into a confined area. When we (beekeepers) start manipulating our hives we often interrupt that confinement. Those bees you see chasing the shb are likely trying to regain control. A better sight, in my opinion, are beetles in a tight cluster under guard.

I don't believe that our bees can kill the adult shbs. Or if they somehow do its just a lucky, freak accident.


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## Beaches' Bee-Haven Apiary (May 22, 2007)

beemandan said:


> It may not be as pretty a sight as one would think. Your bees usually have those shb sequestered into a confined area. When we (beekeepers) start manipulating our hives we often interrupt that confinement. Those bees you see chasing the shb are likely trying to regain control. A better sight, in my opinion, are beetles in a tight cluster under guard.
> 
> I don't believe that our bees can kill the adult shbs. Or if they somehow do its just a lucky, freak accident.


I was actually mainly referring to seeing my guard bees attacking SHB at the entrances of the hive. For the sole purpose you mentioned above, I try to open and disturb my hives the least amount possible.


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## Flyman (Jun 11, 2007)

*SHB Gone?*

I installed 5 pkgs this spring, feed them, nurtured them, did all I knew to do and they were doing pretty good. Then one day I noticed SHB. It got really bad to the point one hive absconded (I actually watched this happen). After consulting all the good advice on BeeSource, I installed West traps with FGMO in all the hives. I trapped the little buggers wholesale...maybe hundreds in each trap. I also treated the soil around the hives with Guardstar. Something did the trick. As of inspection today, I found no evidence of hive beetle. I also have all Pierco foundation so maybe that helped. They will probably be back next year. But I will have stronger hives and a plan to control them. It was kind of fun to see the girls "wrastle" them to the ground and throw them in the trap.


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## Bizzybee (Jan 29, 2006)

I kinda think that treating the ground around the the hives is wishful but wasted time. 

If you have more than a couple of hives to watch, you will without a doubt see that some bees do much better with the beetles. From bottom to top all the way across the curve. I consistently see hives with few to no beetles and others consistently a lot of beetles (100 plus). I've not lost any bees to them yet, but suspect I will sometime. If one flies the coop I wish em luck in their new home somewhere. But I doubt they will fair any better there. I'll refill the hive with bees from one that keeps them away the same day. 

I may this year try to lure the beetles to a box(s) away from the hives, I'm still undecided if I believe it is worth the trouble? But I won't coddle a hive that doesn't or can't handle the pest themselves by my having to deal with a smelly trap all summer.


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## Dale Hodges (Jul 13, 2007)

I think treating the ground around the hive has been a big help for me. I realize I can't kill "them" all, but I keeping them away from the front door. If I understand everything I've read, the larvea drop to the GROUND and CRAWL away from the hive to BORROW into the soil to mature. It seems to me if thier crawling and borrowing in Pereimethium , they will die? Don't we use the same logic when we treat our pets for fleas? Spray our homes for termites, and roaches?Maybe theres a difference in location,but in FL we've got SHB year round. Every time you can kill one of the ....pest, you have to. BY the way , you can get a gallon of the popular ground treatment, for the same price the supply houses charge for a quart. Its avalible in most garden centers, feed stores, do-it-yourself-pest control stores, etc.. HI-YIELD is one of the suppliers, theres more.


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## Bizzybee (Jan 29, 2006)

Dale I don't want to get into conflict of reasoning with you, won't do either one of us any good. Here's why I say that. I've posted it a time or two before somewhere. If you've never been around Atlanta I can tell you we got more than our fair share of blue granite. About 30,000+ PSI stuff. Stone Mountain is just the tip of the iceberg 

Anyhow, I have one yard set up on a huge outcrop of it. It's an awesome yard! No maintenance whatsoever. Solid rock about 200ft X 300ft. It's like beekeeping on concrete. Full sun. It's my worse yard of all for beetles, hands down. I'll promise you those larva aren't digging down into anything there.

I have a yard in the woods that isn't as bad as that one is. Which according to some is the last place to keep bees because of beetles. There are fire ants around all of the yards (not on rock) and I make no attempt to remove them, I think they do a good job of keeping the area clean of anything that hits the ground. Some say they do the same for the shb larva. I honestly don't know, but knowing fire ants that makes perfect sense to me. A yummy snack for them for sure.

I may be way off base here about this, I always leave room for a little doubt. But I think I'm thinking right

Then there's always "what works for me don't for you", so there you have it. Right back where we started 

Thing izz it don't really matter, whatever gives you that warm fuzzy feeling is what you oughta do!! If it don't work do something else...............


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## Dale Hodges (Jul 13, 2007)

Bizzy, I guess we don't know everything we think we do. I have very sandy soil here...supposed to be thier favorite place to live. Yes, I have had different results in different yards. It seems to me that once the population passes a certian threshhold the hive becomes more attractive. I've seen both strong and weak hives taken over in a matter of hours. Its almost as if the SHB is flying around in swarms waiting on an attack signal.Maybe I'm fooling myself and wasting money, but drenching in a yard that has recently been "attacked" seems like a good idea, especially when I can see larvae crawling on the ground....What else can I do??stomp on them?Until someone comes alone with a better idea I guess we just have to do what we think is best. That really is weird about the solid rock yard. It doesn"t seem like they could breed there, but I guess nothing to stop them from flying in.


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## Bizzybee (Jan 29, 2006)

I would like to work in your yard(s). I'd love to see what the threshold is that causes a hive to crash or leave. I've never had that happen yet. I hear these guys saying 5 is to many yet if I see 50 I could care less. I've seen over a 100 before. But the bees keep them above the screen on the inner covers. The bees don't have access to get out at the inner cover, so a few keep guard around the edges of the cover where the beetles tend to hide. I've wondered if that using those screened inner covers don't work out to the bees advantage sometimes? Because it gives the beetles an out without hiding inside the hives where they can get to the stores and pollen?

I was reading about the new beetle trap that's on the way that someone has developed? Not so much in design I think but the fact that they have a lure with it. I'm not sure if they are synthesizing the scent or not, but it comes from a yeast that's created when the beetles larva start feeding on the pollen. They claim it is the calling card for the adult beetles to come running! So that has me thinking that if that be the case then it's not so much a matter of the number of beetles per say, but dependent on whether the bees allow them to get into the pollen? That could be a function of the bees being aggressive enough to keep them away, and is there areas like your's say, that even the best of bees are overwhelmed like you say with a cloud of the flippin thinkings all at once?

Seems to me though, whether you use this new lure that's coming or make your own by setting up some pollen for the beetles to lay in. But then I would much rather have it in something away from my bees, given it has the thing that makes them come running?

I dunno, just my rambling thoughts? But if I were to be seeing larva crawling everywhere. I would be doing something about it, I understand what you're saying. Like I said, I have plenty fireants around all my hives and like to have them there. Maybe you don't? I didn't know until a couple of years ago that there are 2 different kinds of those things? I've never had a problem with them as far as the bees are concerned. But my buddy TwT over the hill says they wiped some of his out. I wonder too if that is the other strain of ants. Wish I knew the answer to that one too?


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## Dale Hodges (Jul 13, 2007)

Yeah, Maybe will get some answers soon....from better brains than mine. I read that to about the yeast. Maybe thats what the beetles use for a calling card, the yeast levels get high enough...everybody comes a runnin'. We've been fighting them for years here in FL and there doesn't seem to be a rhyme or reason to them. The yeast finally makes some sense or seems to. If they come up with a lure I'd say the battle was half over. A lot of the stuff we read years ago just hasn't held up. I remember them saying they need sandy soil so they'de never spread past the east coast. Cantalope was thier favorite food, They couldn't survive in cold climates. But I've still got the faith in our "whiz" kids, they'll figure it out..just got to hang in till then.


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