Hello, it may appear I have lost the battle of the SHB, can you please confirm these are SHB lava.
I have been regularly changing the bottom board trap (table Cloth) however this got wet with the heavy down pour yesturday and I noticed that there are quite a few lava on it, it is normally dry with quite a few SHB on it however today it was damp, not so many beetles and these grubs in large numbers.
Thanks again for your help.
@IanV they look like SHB lavae to me. I would inspect your hive as soon as you can to see what is happening in there.
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The hive beetles probably laid eggs in the damp hive material within the table cloth. They may not have done anything in the hive itself. They definitely are beetle larvae.
I don’t use anything to catch beetles. I use my 5 point strategy. The main one being to eliminate large areas of drone comb in the brood box.
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Thanks @JeffH , I may have seen it before can you please remind me of the 4 other points. I know that this hive does have drone comb but I wouldn’t think it was a large area. Can you please let me know the best way to eliminate it, do you cut out the comb?
Ian.
thanks @KSJ, I am usually reluctant to look at the hive, as when I have in the past the bees have the SHB rounded up and when I open it they scatter. Ill have to have a vacuum cleaner handy when I look 
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Hi Ian, the other 4 would be to make sure, #1 that the population completely covers all the frames containing brood or pollen, #2 don’t leave any bees squashed between combs after an inspection, #3 avoid large honey spills & #4 make sure that there’s nothing outside of the hive that beetles can breed in.
Yes I cut the comb out before placing the frame above the QE, so that the workers can emerge up there. I replace it with frames containing fully drawn worker comb, which I get the bees to build in honey supers. My second preference is fresh foundation.
With fully drawn worker comb, the bees are likely to maintain the worker comb integrity (producing lots of workers, (defenders)), whereas with fresh foundation, they can mess it up, resulting in a lot of drone comb.
PS, I think my last paragraph could be a gold standard in beekeeping. It’s a strategy I’ve only recently adopted, & it’s proved to be very successful for me.
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Thanks for your input, I did check the bottom board again this afternoon and there were no SHB caught and no grubs either. I hope Im clear, time will tell. Ill be doing a proper inspection next weekend.
I did speak to a friend close by who has 6 hives and he’d lost them all to SHB, they were strong hives too, theyve been prolific here with the current weather conditions.
Thanks again.
Ian.