Every day my hive is hit with hive Beatles. they enter through the section of the flow hive where you Harvey the honey. any way I can stop these?
I had to tape the top and edges of my flow supers. I had a horrible infestation that took out 4 colonies in a matter of a month, those shb spread quickly. ugh.
Ive seen super strong colonies handle them, but I’ve not been so successful with eradicating them. I’ve kept my bee yard dry, in full sunlight, and clean out the bottom trays as much as possible. I added crisco, eucaluptus oil and DE paste to the edges of the trays and some SHB oiled traps between frames, but omg, if SHB get into the flow frames that’s horrible!!!
I’m currently trying to run my supers only ontop of shb free colonies in my apiary, or at least ones that seem to keep the SHB under control. those pests always move upward in my boxes.
Hi Teresa, I’m pretty sure that it’s impossible to keep colonies free of hive beetles. All colonies, I have found will keep beetles under control. It just requires us following a few simple steps, which I outline in the recent topic: “Hive Massacre - Wax Moth or Hive Beetle?”.
Each of my 5 points are important, however step #1 comes horribly unstuck if a colony absconds, or collapses on account of varroa mites.
I’m constantly mindful of hive beetles with everything I do with my bees. There is always a question, “can what I’m doing result in a slime-out?”
the tape worked at the rear of the super where I extract the honey. keen to know more about the traps between the frames… wouldn’t these get in the way?