Hi everyone,
just wondering if anyone has had anything to do with the Beetle Buster? (http://www.beetlebusterbeekeeping.com/) We are newbies and waiting for our Flow hives to arrive in Feb. We have spoken with the inventor of this product in Beerwah and it seems like a good idea. Is it worth the extra money or can we do without?
I am down south of you in Canberra, and we have less of an issue with SHB, but my dad has a Warre hive on the south coast NSW and they are pretty savage. I use the aphidor traps, and I also put a microfibre cloth in the top of the hive as an indicator. The bees fluff the cloth up and they get tangled.
If you have a screened bottom board you can also use a microfibre cloth or petroleum jelly to trap the beetles.
Hi Cormac, I’m just a little further south in Jindabyne.
The flow hive has a screened bottom. I also have a warre. In the warre it is easy I use a beetlra trap which works brilliantly. In the flow hive I’ve installed a apithor trap but wasn’t sure where to install it: on the screened bottom or below it on the foam core bottom.
Any ideas?
Hi Allen - I would actually put the Aphidor trap in the top, under the top cover. They tend to try to get to the top of the hive (where the honey is) and then hunker down in a crack to wait for an opportunity to lay eggs in the honey. This way the bees will chase them into the trap, and they also can’t get out of the hole in the top cover.
I am going to use petroleum jelly on my inspection board under the screen to trap them, that way they will get caught from the top and bottom. The one really good thing about living in the southern highlands is that the cold really hits the hive beetles hard.