Hive Beetles

[knightfamily]

I found three of hives with these little beetles. I was wondering what to do with the honey. Can it be extracted for human consumption. I just ordered some gardstar to drench the soil at the hives. One of the hives -which happens to be a good ways away from the others -was a pretty healthy hive. The other two seemed weak and I am thinking of combining these two. I have ordered some CheckMite -planning on treating the hives - thats why I wanted to know what to do with the honey on the one hive-theres a med super full and I am planning on taking it off before treating.

Any suggestions?

Thanks
Shelly

[Robo]

I have no experience with hive beetles, and hopefully never will.  It is my understanding that the bettles end up destroying the wax comb in the hive.  I don't believe they do any damage to the honey (other then perhaps eat it) that would contaminate it.  

Are you aware that Dadant sells a hive beetle trap?

click image to go to Dadant Website

Use this trap any time beetles are present. However since Small Hive Beetles (S.H.B.) are temperature sensitive it will be far more effective during late spring to fall when beetles are out of the cluster and most active. Directions Included with your West Beetle Trap are wooden spacers needed to modify your bottom board, to allow the honey bees to enter and exit the hive while the West Beetle Trap is in place. Before installing the West Beetle Trap, thoroughly clean and scrape, if necessary, any debris or burr comb from the bottom board that may interfere with the proper placement of the West Beetle Trap. It is critical that the trap is level before adding the vegetable oil. Place trap on bottom and fill 1/2 with oil, purchased separately. Place cover on trap. Do not pour oil through the trap cover, as any spilled oil may cause bee mortality. At this time you may reassemble your hive and start trapping beetles! Periodic cleaning of the traps is necessary. Check traps every 7-14 days. Tips The manipulation of your colony will disturb the S.H.B. hiding spots causing them to move around in the colony and find the trap sooner. Storage and Disposal After use, discard used oil in an approved manner. Clean traps and store away from direct sunlight and any pesticides.

Once again, I have no experience with this,  but tend to try and avoid using any pesticides on or around my bees.

If anyone has experience with SHBs,  I would be interested in hearing more about it.  There has been a few post to date asking about how to deal with them, but I don't believe we have found an 'expert' yet.

[knightfamily]

Thanks Robo, I have seen the trap and we have one but we've never put it on. I need to adjust the bottom boards first. I just haven't had time to do this yet. Plus I need to get more. I have 11 hives and only one trap and I believe they around $20. That's alot right now.

Planning on checking on the hives today. In the past couple of weeks I have extracted 3 and 1/2 med supers and one deep super of honey. I got 13 gallons of honey and 2 gallon jars of wax cappings. :D   Wow.  :o  I have been letting it settle and I am going to jar it today as well. Bought some jars and I look forward to selling some on the sqare one Sat morning.

[steve]

Shelly,
      You can use the honey from the Hive-beetled hive PRIOR to the application of the Checkmite, but not after........
       Also, any supers (frames of honey) you take off should be frozen either before or after exstraction for at least 48 hours to kill the beetle's eggs.............
       The hive beetle's larva is an eating machine, if it's in the hive and standing still the larva will eat it.......wax comb, pollen, honey, bee larva,
fortunatly a strong hive with the help of Checkmite and Gardstar are very effective. I have not used the Dadant trap that Robo mentioned and have senced move my Florida operation to the mountains of North Carolina...
no beetles here......yet.....
                                         Steve,

[sid]

What is the best way to treat hive beetles?
-Sid

[BeeMaster2]

Sid,
I deal whit SHB's all the time. I use screen bottom boards with an oil tray under it. My first couple of years I killed thousands per hive per month. My neighbor, 3/4 of a mile away did the same thing at the same time. By the third year, we stopped putting oil in the trays because the SHB population crashed. Thousands killed and all of the larvae that did hatched dropped into the oil. Cleaned the oil trays out on a monthly basis and they would be solid black. Now I mostly clean dry trays once a week. The larvae can live and grow in the pollen that ends up in the dry trays. Every once in a while I add oil to the tray of a hive that is under attack. Usually it is a hive that is about to swarm or just swarmed. When the hives are stressed, the beetles smell it and attack it. They know that they have a couple of days to lay their eggs with out beeing harassed. Then it is a race for the bees to clean out the beetles, eggs and larvae before the hive is slimed. If it is too extensive, the bees will have to move out.
Jim

[jayj200]

down here our club has some hives in the pines they were literally covered with the Beatles. as we opened the lid, and started smashing them on the lid.
next month just a few in the lid.

it is one way to control them

[jredburn]

If you take one of the oil traps and use diatomaceous earth instead of oil you will find it is easier to handle, works better and is cheaper.  It never wears out either.  The bugs crawl through it and it cuts them apart as the stuff is very sharp on the micro scale.  It also absorbs fluid from their body and they dry out and  die.  It works on mites and cockroaches, wont hurt dogs, cats or people.
If you take the top cover and the inner cover off and place a piece of Plexiglass on top of the hive, the SHB cannot stand light and will do anything to get away from it.  When the bees harass the beetles they crawl down into the bottom of the hive and into the trap.
It takes the bees about 5 minutes to adjust to the light at the top.
It really works.
I make mine with a removable tray so I can clean it out without having to take the hive apart.

[capt44]

For the folks that's never had to deal with Hive Beetles, hope and pray you never have too.
This year they would hit a hive hard.
I lost 3 hives before I knew what happened do to hive beetles.

[beeman2009]

jredburn is right about using DE to kill SHB. I do the same thing. I go a step further and treat the ground under & around my hives with a 50/50 mix of DE & Ag Lime for a distance of about 20 ft around them. Only saw 1 SHB in the last 3 years. I'm sure there were more, just didn't see them or any damage by them.