Honeyflow.com | FAQ's |

What do you use in your pest management tray?

Beekeeping Basics
#1

Welcome to another great year on the Flow Forum everyone!

Late last year in the office we experimented with putting water and a tsp of detergent in the pest management tray. This option, if successful, was thought to be a cheaper and more readily available alternative to oil.

We found that it worked well at killing the pests but the water evaporated quite quickly, within a week or so (we’re located in a subtropical climate, in Summer).

Another alternative the customer support team received recently from a customer is 2L of water with 100ml paraffin oil, which is believed to work well too.

What do you use, what have you found that works best for you and what are your thoughts on the above?

#2

I save my old used cooking oil and repurpose it. Clean it out 3 times a year. Very little effort.

I’m no rocket scientist but evaporating detergent would worry me as I use it to control wasps late summer (uk) and it’s pretty lethal and what I’ve seen used to exterminate diseased or aggressive hives.

Not sure if there would be enough in any vapour to have a detrimental effect but like I mentioned I’d just worry.

#3

Hi HH, “to exterminate diseased or “aggressive” hives”. We all know on this forum that there’s no need to exterminate aggressive hives.

#4

I’m using vegetable oil in my flow hive 2 tray. I currently have a chalkbrood outbreak and the mummies seem to be dropping through the bottom screen and getting caught in the oil nicely.

Does anyone know if oil contains or kills the fungus spores, or is there anything else I can add?

Also I’m cleaning the tray with bleach before replacing, is this OK or would disinfectant or something else be better ?

1 Like
#5

No it won’t

That should be fine, but chalk brood is a bigger problem than disinfecting.

#6

Agreed. Just something I’ve saw online and detergent was used. Pretty drastic full Hive exterminated in seconds.

I’ll try and find the video sure it was on YouTube.

3 Likes
#7

I didn’t watch all the video, however I watched enough to assess that there’s no need to kill that colony. My strategy I outlined to @Outbeck would work with this colony.

One thing he did say that brought back memories is wearing multiple gloves, multiple shirts etc is all the stuff I used to wear before tackling a hot hive. Now that I developed my strategy, I don’t do all that stuff anymore.
cheers

PS, it’s amazing how quickly conspiracy theories spread on the internet. Forget about my strategy. Let’s talk about Michael Bush’s strategy, which is similar. Wouldn’t you think that Michael Bush’s strategy for dealing with a hot hive would spread like wildfire throughout the worldwide beekeeping community? Then you wouldn’t have blokes like this bloke killing a valuable beekeeping resource.

#8

Not had the issue myself but I agree JeffH always a way to manage rather than extermination.

It was a difficult watch :pensive:

#9

Hi HH, I finished up playing the whole video with Wilma watching & me making my lunch. Wilma kept on saying “I’ve seen your bees just as cranky”. Then she kept on saying “he dropped another frame in the box, that bloke’s an idiot”. “The way he drops those frames, no wonder the bees are cranky”. I replied that he must be used to working very quiet bees.

I genuinely forgot about how I used to dress up in preparation for dealing with an angry hive. I wasn’t prepared the other day, I copped a few stings, through my suit & hat. One got up through a gap in my veil. I did a split yesterday morning, the bees got a bit toe’ey. with rain threatening They took a liking to the thin material of my bee suit on my shoulders. They got a bit sore.

#10

Yeah dropping the frames didnt help his case :rofl::see_no_evil:.

1 Like