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Author Topic: Hive beetle slime  (Read 10314 times)

Offline Todd River Man

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Hive beetle slime
« on: November 07, 2011, 07:28:08 am »
Hi there,
I created 10 new nucs, and two have lost the battle with the South Afro intruders.....
The grubs are covering the frames, and the remaining bees are cowering in a single patch.

Is there an instant kill measure? I've been spraying with boiling water, but of course off comes the wax.

I intend on saving the hives, by reintroducing the queens into a new nuc setup.

Shall I freeze the whole box?  What's the best clean up?

I hate Shb. :-x

Offline ShaneJ

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Re: Hive beetle slime
« Reply #1 on: November 07, 2011, 07:34:59 am »
I was just listening to a pod cast with Jerry Freeman and someone asked the exact same question. He said to wash off the slime with your hose and freeze the frames for a few days.
Shane

Offline chriso38

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Re: Hive beetle slime
« Reply #2 on: November 09, 2011, 06:55:08 am »
Sounds like u need to invest in some hive beetle traps, check with local bee equipment suppliers, and on ebay aus.   they might have stood a better chance. i put my beetle traps in as soon as i make a split.  good luck!

Offline Larry Bees

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Re: Hive beetle slime
« Reply #3 on: November 09, 2011, 11:40:04 am »
The solution to the small hive beetles is to place your hives in all day sunlight. You still will get a few in some of your hives, but you can kill them when you do your hive inspections.

This was told to me by Jerry at Dadant in High Springs, Fl. He works with the University of Florida in Gainesville.

It works!!! I have never lost a hive or nuc due to the shb.

Larry

Offline westmar

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Re: Hive beetle slime
« Reply #4 on: November 09, 2011, 07:58:36 pm »
hi
   i found out the hard way when i was extracting supers i Left the wet supers 3 days before i took then out to yard put back on.found 2 supers full grub.never had this problem before.next time have to get them back on straight away

Offline ShaneJ

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Re: Hive beetle slime
« Reply #5 on: November 09, 2011, 08:21:36 pm »
I think you will find putting the wet frames/supers back on will be just as bad. This is how I lost my last hive. The information I have read on on these forums suggest to leave the frames out near the hive for the bees to clean them up and then put them in the freezer for a day or so.

hi
   i found out the hard way when i was extracting supers i Left the wet supers 3 days before i took then out to yard put back on.found 2 supers full grub.never had this problem before.next time have to get them back on straight away
Shane

Offline Mardak

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Re: Hive beetle slime
« Reply #6 on: November 10, 2011, 04:17:02 am »
make youself up some traps with CD covers, glue and dichotomus earth inside. The beetles crawl in away from the bees and sand themselves to death over time. There is newer self contained product called apoithor(?) lasts a season or two and has been well researched as effective about $5 a pop. they can be ordered on the net. www.apithor.com.au

Offline yantabulla

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Re: Hive beetle slime
« Reply #7 on: November 10, 2011, 05:01:49 am »
Apithor traps are deadly to SHB.  Beetles flying into my hives at dusk are kicked out dead at dawn.  Great for nucs or weak hives.

Offline yantabulla

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Re: Hive beetle slime
« Reply #8 on: November 10, 2011, 05:04:43 am »
And another thing.  Letting bees rob honey in the open is illegal.  It spreads disease & is irresponsible.  Please don't do it.

Offline Meadlover

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Re: Hive beetle slime
« Reply #9 on: November 10, 2011, 06:03:32 pm »
Is there an instant kill measure? I've been spraying with boiling water, but of course off comes the wax.

Shall I freeze the whole box?  What's the best clean up?
Freezing is a great option (if you have the freezer space) as it kills all stages of the SHB - eggs, larvae and beetle.
After being in the freezer, defrost, wash down with water, dry/air out, then give back to the bees.


The solution to the small hive beetles is to place your hives in all day sunlight. You still will get a few in some of your hives, but you can kill them when you do your hive inspections.

This was told to me by Jerry at Dadant in High Springs, Fl. He works with the University of Florida in Gainesville.

It works!!! I have never lost a hive or nuc due to the shb.

Larry
This may be your solution, but may be a little different to the solution required to us here - our summers are very hot and very humid - full sun in the middle of summer will melt the hive down here in Queensland.


......There is newer self contained product called apoithor(?) lasts a season or two and has been well researched as effective about $5 a pop. they can be ordered on the net.
There's no way I'd ever put Fiprinol near my food!


make youself up some traps with CD covers, glue and dichotomus earth inside. The beetles crawl in away from the bees and sand themselves to death over time.
I think DE is a much better option, although with the high humidity up here in QLD both lime and DE clump together quickly. I have found mechanical traps with cooking oil the best solution so far.

Offline Larry Bees

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Re: Hive beetle slime
« Reply #10 on: November 10, 2011, 07:47:23 pm »
Quote from: Larry Bees on November 09, 2011, 10:40:04 AM
The solution to the small hive beetles is to place your hives in all day sunlight. You still will get a few in some of your hives, but you can kill them when you do your hive inspections.

This was told to me by Jerry at Dadant in High Springs, Fl. He works with the University of Florida in Gainesville.

It works!!! I have never lost a hive or nuc due to the shb.

Larry


This may be your solution, but may be a little different to the solution required to us here - our summers are very hot and very humid - full sun in the middle of summer will melt the hive down here in Queensland.



It gets hot and humid here in Central Florida in the summer too.

Wouldn't your bees start fanning the hive to keep it cooler inside rather than letting it melt down?

Not trying to start an argument with our friends down under, just trying to learn.

Larry

Offline Mardak

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Re: Hive beetle slime
« Reply #11 on: November 11, 2011, 04:52:21 am »
Independent scientific research studies and research validate that there is no trace of anything after using these Apithor traps. The RIDOC of Australia was involved in some of this research to ensure valid results were obtained. If ya don't want use then don't, if ya do want use them you know your hive beetle die and your bees and honey are safe. I do not use the product myself as HB has not surfaced this far down where my boxes are all located. BEEKs I know who use them love for their simplicity and honey testing results have always been clear.

Offline Intheswamp

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Re: Hive beetle slime
« Reply #12 on: November 11, 2011, 10:57:16 am »
I've no personal experience with this (yet) but from all of my reading of different peoples experiences with hives in different locations and climates it seems that it's not necessarily the "sun" that repels the SHB but very possibly more arid conditions around the hive that repels them.  A hot, dry area that the hives sit within isn't appealing (and is actually downright inhospitable) to the beetles.

I'm located in south Alabama, high summer temps in the low 100's, humidity through the roof.  The entire southeast is known for a high SHB population.

I will begin establishing my apiary early this spring and intend to place them full sun.  This area will be in sunshine from sun up until probably 6pm in the summer.  I checked a few days ago at the first of November and I'm still getting sunshine on the area at 5pm.  If I sense that the heat is getting too much for the hive I've decided to build some shade screens for the hives.  Basically what I'm figuring is to use window screen frames with a dark sunscreen material in them.  Design them to extend and inch or two on each side of the top cover and to be raised an inch above the top cover.  This will shield the hives from direct solar gain but leave the surrounding ground to bake in the sun.  

Depending on how extreme the heat situation is, I may also build a side screen for the west side of the hives.  Setting the hives close to each other will require probably only one of these side screens per row of hives being as the hives to the east will be shaded by the ones on the west.  My concern with solar gain on the sides is from the west in the hot afternoons.

Anyhow, we'll see how all this works out, but thought I'd mention it to ya'll.

G'day...or as we'd say here "Have a gud'n" ;)
Ed
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American blood spilled to protect the freedom and peace of people all over the world.  320,000 USA casualties in WWI, 1,076,000 USA casualties in WWII, 128,000 USA casualties in the Korean War, 211,000 casualties in the Vietnam "conflict", 57,000 USA casualties in "War on Terror".  Benghazi, Libya, 13 USA casualties. These figures don't include 70,000 MIA.  But, the leaders of one political party of the United States of America continue to make the statement..."What difference does it make?".

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Offline Monster1970

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Re: Hive beetle slime
« Reply #13 on: December 01, 2011, 06:33:19 pm »
Swamp,

I placed some shadecloth over the western side of my hives last week as I was getting a significant amount of bearding in the afternoon from the heat of the afternoon sun. The other night I found a cane toad sitting under the hives, hoping the beard would extend that little bit further to bring bees within eating distance. The shadecloth has made a huge difference to the amount of bearding that occurs now.
We have designed our civilization based on science and technology and at the same time arranged things so that almost no one understands anything at all about science and technology. This is a clear prescription for disaster.  

Carl Sagan.

Offline Todd River Man

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Re: Hive beetle slime
« Reply #14 on: December 04, 2011, 09:59:47 am »
I keep my hives under trees. That's a good idea with the shade cloth.

2 of my nucs collapsed from that stinking Shb. I have been watching the hives almost 2 times per week to get on top of their assault. I use traps and baits, the best is the cd case. I've been swapping brood and keeping the colonies ultra strong. This is the best defence.

The nucs have grown 3 x 10 framers tall now, honey flow is excellent. Each has at least 1 super full.

The crankiest hive is bizarre, I mean super agro. I suspect a deeper problem with the hive. Shb? I need to wear a crash helmet too, because it's by far the strongest hive. No room? I will take a peak through it this Wednesday. The hive cover has no air holes...... I will fix that too.

These bees immediately jump on you and sting as soon as you open the hive cover! Plus attack if you hang around in front. Better than a watch dog!

Offline Danulsarn

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Re: Hive beetle slime
« Reply #15 on: December 06, 2011, 08:17:26 pm »
On the Apithor harbourages - I've been using them for over a month and am amazed by their effectiveness. I've never seen so many SHB before here, it's been such a wet and humid spring the beetle popultaion seems to be exploding. I've watched beetle after beetle fly into my hives. I killed 12 with my hands before they got into one hive and estimate that was about 1/3 to 1/4 of the beatles that did get into the hive in a 20 min period.

I checked the hives the next day and could not find one live SHB. Plenty of dead ones. Very impressed and highly recommend it.

Offline Monster1970

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Re: Hive beetle slime
« Reply #16 on: December 07, 2011, 02:41:25 am »
Yep, they love the humidity! I have two supers of honey on one hive that has to come off and I'm gonna do it now while its raining and cooler. Some of our more experienced Brisbane beeks are saying that you wait to put the stickies back in on cooler, not-so-humid days (as we have at the moment with the cool rain), as this slows the beetle down. I have also put a Apithor trap in each hive as well as oil traps up top. Lost two hives to these darn beetles now and not going to lose another.
We have designed our civilization based on science and technology and at the same time arranged things so that almost no one understands anything at all about science and technology. This is a clear prescription for disaster.  

Carl Sagan.

Offline Intheswamp

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Re: Hive beetle slime
« Reply #17 on: December 07, 2011, 09:32:29 am »
Swamp,

I placed some shadecloth over the western side of my hives last week as I was getting a significant amount of bearding in the afternoon from the heat of the afternoon sun. The other night I found a cane toad sitting under the hives, hoping the beard would extend that little bit further to bring bees within eating distance. The shadecloth has made a huge difference to the amount of bearding that occurs now.
That's good to hear, Monster.  My site is on the side of a sloping hill on old terraced farmland with plenty of sandy soil depth for the beetles to pupate in, but at least it will have full sun all day.  I've situated the area for the hives between two terraces where the least amount of rainwater will collect.  I've got my lone small nuc there at the moment.  I'm hoping that my plans of "scorched earth" surrounding the hives will help reduce the shb numbers.  The shade cloth will hopefully give the bees some relief from extreme solar gain during the summer.

I've strongly considered building a frame-type stands to hold four hives with room for resting hive bodies/tops on while inspecting.  With the slope of the land I don't think I'll be able to angle the hives toward the SE like I want to...the frame would have to run more or less east to west and to angle the hives would mean only two corners of each box would rest on the framework.   I may have to stick with the cement block stands but I had some shb trap ideas that I've thought of incorporating into the stands.  I may still go with the frame-type stands and just point the entrances due south...that should still cause the hives to receive wake-up sun just as early....only thing it won't do is turn the entrance a tad away from the direction of our prevailing winds and storms.  Still gotta decide on that one.

Best wishes down there!
Ed
www.beeweather.com 
American blood spilled to protect the freedom and peace of people all over the world.  320,000 USA casualties in WWI, 1,076,000 USA casualties in WWII, 128,000 USA casualties in the Korean War, 211,000 casualties in the Vietnam "conflict", 57,000 USA casualties in "War on Terror".  Benghazi, Libya, 13 USA casualties. These figures don't include 70,000 MIA.  But, the leaders of one political party of the United States of America continue to make the statement..."What difference does it make?".

"We can't expect the American People to jump from Capitalism to Communism, but we can assist their elected leaders in giving them small doses of Socialism, until they awaken one day to find that they have Communism."..."The press is our chief ideological weapon." - Nikita Khrushchev

"Always go to other people’s funerals, otherwise they wont come to yours." - Yogi Berra

 

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