SHB in flow hive frames and traps between flow frames in Lake Macquarie area Newcastle NSW

Pests and Diseases
1

Hi Everyone,
This is my first season with a beehive. When I got the nuc I could see some small hive beetle but not in the frames - just the nuc box. I have opened the hive 3 times since I got it October- November. Once to put the nuc in the brood box, Once to check the brood and see how full all the brood frames were and then after some weeks again to put the flowhive on top. I painted the frames with sugar water up at the house before taking it down the flow hive to the back of the block - which is an acre, and while I was painting the frames with the sugar water there were already 3 bees on them. I put the flowhive on top and was picking up tools looked in the window and there were already 10 bees in the flow frames. So far so good. But, I had a look in the window today after 3 weeks and I could see maybe 5 SHB and the bees were trying to reach them and chase them out but they were stuck right in. I have base board traps with Diatomaceous earth and also two silver bullet frame traps. I have seen some in the silver bullet but not much in the base traps - note the base traps were not apithor but did look like a harborage - again filled with Dia Earth. I will try to get to open the brood box later this week when it is not too hot. The weather here has been a terrible humid headwave for around 2 weeks and I read that SHB love to breed in that weather.

Questions:

  1. When do I hit the big red panic button?
  2. Should I put some silver bullet traps in between the flowframes themselves?
  3. Should I get apithor harbourage’s as well?

Looking forward to hearing from someone soon!

2

Silver bullets are good, and a good sprinkling of diatomoaceous earth on the tray beneath the screen will see an end to their days. Regular inspections really help, by taking the lid off then squashing as many beetles as possible and then a combination of the the light and the beekeeper moving frames will push the beetles down onto the screen where the bees will help force them out. If you do this a couple of weeks in a row I think you find that it dents the numbers of beetles.

3

Thanks Rodderick! I also used Cedar’s upside down fleece table cloth on the corflute board - in 24 hours it caught 35 beetles and some larvae. Is there anything that can be used to treat the soil around the hive safely to kill incubating larvae?

4

Hi Gillian, if you know that there is SHB larvae in the soil then you could sprinkle diathomaceous earth over the soil in front of the hive, this is harmless to the bees (as long as they cannot fall into it on the ground) and will need to be re-applied after rain. There are other methods that involve using toxic pesticides to bees so I wouldn’t advise it.

5

Great thanks Rodderick –will do!

6

UPDATE:
The upside down tablecloth is excellent - the silver bullet and below black sticky trap and also the black diatomacious earth trap only caught about 5 each - there were no visible beetles left in the brood box or flow hive after using the table cloth method for 2 weeks - just thought to share.

1 Like
7

Only problem is that the fibers have somehow pulled the fibers up to the mesh base and the corflute board came out but left the tablecloth furry side up stuck underneath. When it cools down today I will have another crack at getting it out but have not idea yet how I am going to do that.