Is this ok to use as a hive mat?

Beekeeping - Basics
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I’ve got some vinyl leftover from another project, it is furry/ fluffy on the bottom. Is it still ok to use or will the bees legs get caught?

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I wouldn’t use it if it is fluffy, but maybe @JeffH can tell you for sure. :wink:

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Someone left me a few boxes to put bees in for them. they had vinyl just like that. I was concerned but at this stage I haven’t seen any bees stuck but it has caught a lot of hive beetles.
I have found it is most successful on hive beetles when you put it in fluffy side up.
I would try it if I was you seeing as though you have it available. Check on it after a day or two and if it’s going to be a problem remove it then. If it’s all good, happy days.

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I don’t like exposing bees to the fluffy side. I agree with @Dawn_SD . I got a huge amount of roll ends a few years ago with fluffy on one side. So what I did was cut two mats to make one by gluing the fluffy sides together, using silicone, contact adhesive, & a tin of vinyl floor glue which I purchased with the roll ends. They turned out to be good stiff mats.

A few years ago I started gluing vinyl mats back to back to counteract the vinyl curling up, which really works well. This was before I acquired the fluffy back stuff.

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Thanks for the advice

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Just updating…
I have decided that the fluffy mats are not a good idea after inspecting today. Heaps of bees stuck on the 2 mats that were fluffy side down but interestingly no bees stuck, only SHB on the rest of the mats that were fluffy side up. :thinking:

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Quite logical! :wink: When you put a hive mat on a box, you are creating a ceiling for the bees, with a gap around the edges. Just as you wouldn’t often go into the attic of your home, the bees don’t go above it much until they run out of space in the boxes. So they won’t get caught on the fluffy side until the box is pretty full.

On the other hand, they actively chase SHB out of their hive space. In your case, this would be above the hive mat. They may even try to propolize them to the lower surface of the hive mat. I think that @JeffH has seen that. So basically they are running them into a trap of fluff on the upper side of the mat.

The only risk is that when the bees start to run out of space, they will explore above the hive mat. At that point they may well get stuck in the fluff too. :cry:

Hope that sheds some light on your mystery! :blush:

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