Beetle larvae in flow frame door

I just opened the harvesting back to the flow frames box. I found about 10+ hive bettle larvae in the bottom right corner. I removed opened the box up even with out smoking to pull that frame out ASAP to look. Did not see in larvae well I hope. I will be harvesting the 2 end frames tomorrow. I did place some wintergreen grease in the corners. That is what I use in to help keep bettles out of the hive in the winter with no honey flow. Since the Bee can not get to this area I fill ok about putting it there.

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I’m assuming you mean beetles but keep them in check and make sure the colony is strong. There must be an area the bees can’t get to because they usually keep the beetles corralled and under control.

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It’s not good if you’re finding beetle larvae in the honey super. I would recommend you check the brood out straight away. Check every frame.

Oh dear. Hope it goes okay. Maybe post some photos so we can see what is happening.

correct, the area is just inside the back access door and right next to where the plastic flow frame meets the wood frame of the box. right in that corner.

No photos I was :cry: so MAD and concern I, killed the 6-10 of them I saw and suited up right away and went right into the hive and looked at that frame. It looked ok, I will harvest it Sunday. I will harvest it into several jars so I could filter or discard it it segments.

I just don’t know how the beetles could have gotten to this area also. there was plenty of food for them. Honey, and propolis

doing that on Sunday before I harvest. Hive is strong, the larvae was where the bee could not get too.

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Check them closely: I remember a few years back when beetles took hold I was uncapping a frame and out of the corner of my eye saw something wiggle. It was a beetle larva that I first thought was a wax cap :nauseated_face:

Damn don’t like that, That scares me

You’ll be fine: Look the frame over really good and check for slime, especially around the perimeter and any place it is not capped.

A little extra protein is good once in awhile.

tagging on to this.

I have the new FLOW HIVE 2 with the white tray that can go in the bottom, not just the foam bottom board, this is a tray with sides.

did a inspection of the trays and several I found quite a bit of larve in the tray.

the question is,

  1. do I leave the tray in and catch the larvae
  2. will they die in the tray?
  3. will they be able to turn in to beetles?
  4. should I pull the try and let them fall on the concrete, Grass is about 2 feet away so they could craw there?
  5. it is getting hot here and thinking the tray being in is not giving them that much air movement.

Hi Marty, you need to find out where the beetle larvae are coming from. Beetle larvae are often the result of a slime-out. They could be isolated to a patch of drone brood. A thorough brood inspection would be advisable.

From what I understand, DE is used in the tray to kill beetles & larvae. I’m sure that would stop them from turning into beetles.

If you are going to tip them somewhere, tip them into something that can freeze them. Or into a bucket, put the lid on, then put the bucket in the sun will cook them. OR feed them to the chooks.

They crawl around at night time, they would have no trouble crawling 2 feet towards the grass, even during a hot day.

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Hello Marty,

It is most likely that the larvae are from evicted hive beetles falling into the tray, and if there is some wax debris they thought this would work, the larvae wont survive as there is no food source. Remove the tray and discard them. You wont want to do this scattering around the hive, as they can possible find something to survive on and turn into more beetles.

Putting some oil in the tray will catch and kill the beetles, as they are evicted from the hive.

For ventilation you can put the cover in the slotted side up, or remove it completely. The tray itself being removed would maximise ventilation, however it also removes the ability to monitor residue and kill pests.

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The larvae I saw, was varying stages from so small they looked like the size of a fresh Bee egg to one that is blackhead and 1/4 inch long.

Do beetles lay eggs or do they push out larvae. If they lay eggs. Do they lay them in something inside the frame or are they laying the eggs in the tray since there is wax debris down there likely a little of both. If there laying in wax just not understanding the metamorphosis stage of beetles sounds like I need to do some reading. After typing this

The beetles, when given a chance will lay eggs in brood, dead or dying bees & pollen. There is no value for them in wax. However I have seen them lay eggs in hive debris, mainly chewed brood capings that buildup on the floor, when mixed with rain water.

When laying eggs in brood or pollen, they are sneaky. They chew through the comb & deposit the eggs at the base of the brood or pollen. Then the eggs hatch before the larvae consume the food from the base of the cell first. The beetles & larvae produce a slime that is actually a bee repellent. A strong bee colony can overwhelm that to a certain degree. However a weak colony can get overwhelmed by the beetles resulting in a slime-out causing the bees to eventually abscond.

I had a recent experience with a clients flow hive that had a reasonable size colony that was ready to abscond. The beetles slimed the hive in too many places at once for the bees to be able to overwhelm them. It was just luck that the bloke called me when he did, otherwise the colony would have taken off, leaving the hive to get completely slimed & ruining the full roof of honey & outside brood frames full of honey.

This happened a few days post honey harvest of the flow frames.

I haven’t started bee keeping as yet, waiting for Spring but have been reading all the post on this forum. Learning lots.

I was thinking what if you sprayed the tray with Neverwet, the beetles wouldnt be able to walk and therefore starved to death on the tray? Could also put a tray big enough under the front entrance if any beetles get ejected out that way?

Another material that you could use that is fluffy is dacron.