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Author Topic: Have a crack at this ?  (Read 5218 times)

Offline Lek

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Have a crack at this ?
« on: August 03, 2012, 08:43:49 am »
 This may have been asked before..  What the best SHB trap or whatever you have  used to clean out those little critters?
Over the past few years I have tried a few, squashed cockroach  baits, cockroach gel stuffed into Cd case, that earth stuff, one time even shook all the bees along with the shb into wheel barrow, then as the bees crawled out and I guess was wondering what the hell had they done to deserve that , I laid into the beetle with a lump of timber, reduced the number for awhile. Just recently purchased some shb excluders, set to work and made up a landing board with tray with veg oil beneath and set the brood box on a couple of days ago, went back today and had a look. You little ripper, tray full of beetle, best results ever. I reckon the gals were a bit quieter also. If I can find how to post a picture I will post up a few pics .   Lek.

Offline ShaneJ

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Re: Have a crack at this ?
« Reply #1 on: August 03, 2012, 09:44:45 am »
Best trap I have tried so far is the freeman beetle trap. This however is only good on a hive with enough bees to chase the beetles into it.

In the hives that I have cut out of walls etc I have found the only good trap for around here involves the use of poison. When I first got into bee keeping (only a short while ago) I said I would never use poison to keep the SHB in check, but I soon released that using a bit of poison to allow a colony to establish was worth it.
Shane

Offline Intheswamp

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Re: Have a crack at this ?
« Reply #2 on: August 03, 2012, 11:48:20 am »
Lek, I'm in the southeast USA...another hotbed of shb activity.  Could you tell me a bit more about the "shb excluder" that you mentioned?  A picture would be very nice, too. :)

Shane, what type of poison are you using for the shb.  I've yet to have a major problem with beetles, though I definitely have them in the hives.  I know my time is coming. :-x   My mentor uses only Beetle Jail Jr's inside of his hives and, of course, squashes all of them that he sees.  Out of his 30 some few hives he has lost a couple so far this year.  So far I've only used the in-hive Beetle Jail Jr's, also.  I keep 2-3 in each hive, normally on different levels/boxes.  I've been trying to figure out how to setup some oil trays beneath the hives...the current oil tray offerings are rather $$$ for me.  :-P

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?".

"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

Offline Anybrew

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Re: Have a crack at this ?
« Reply #3 on: August 03, 2012, 06:53:30 pm »
I think the oil tray under the bottom board is the way to go as well.  Hey intheswamp, I was worried about the cost of the trays too. So i went to a supermarket and found metal solid metal/tin trays in the baking section used to bake cookies on.  They are very shallow 1/2 inch or so,(very cheap about$2) and I have some metal runners and they slide right under the bottom board.
Above the tray,as in the bottom board I am going to cut some slots with a drop saw so the SHB fall down into the oil tray.
I am presently making some to try.........

Cheers
Steve



Offline Intheswamp

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Re: Have a crack at this ?
« Reply #4 on: August 03, 2012, 08:17:12 pm »
Steve, are the trays that you have down there disposable tin or a heavier-duty re-useable type of tray?  I've been looking at the disposable tin type but haven't been able to find a short cookie sheet type...most of what I have found are a couple of inches deep.  Of course, I live in a small town with limited sources...I'll look around up in Montgomery next trip up.

I use screen bottom boards sitting with their side rails resting on cement blocks.  The way the screen bottom boards are built leaves 3/8 inch of space available for a pan to slide between the boards and the cement block...this would make great built-in runners for the pans if I can find some pans around 1/2 inch tall.  If you look at the right hand side of the bottomboard picture you will see where a piece of 1x is inserted into a dado.  On the upper side of the board inserted in the dado is where the screen is attached so that gives about a 3/4 inch fall from screen to pan.

If I can't find a 1/2 inch tall pan I will have to build some shims to go under the bottom boards and use deeper pans...that would probably be less problematical in regards to spillage.

Here's a mock-up using cardboard boxes to show how my bottom boards sit on the cement blocks. A nice 20x12x1/2 inch deep tray would fit pretty good...11-1/2 wide would be better, though. ;)


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

Offline ShaneJ

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Re: Have a crack at this ?
« Reply #5 on: August 03, 2012, 08:57:22 pm »
Ed the main poison is the well known fipronil. I also use another poison if the SHB are really bad but I can't remember the name of if.

I want to be clear that I only use the poison in hive that I have cut out and I only use it till the hive has established.
Shane

Offline Intheswamp

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Re: Have a crack at this ?
« Reply #6 on: August 03, 2012, 09:18:43 pm »
Thanks for the feedback, Shane.  Personally, I think there are more people using fipronil than admit to using it.  I certainly won't say that I won't ever use it but so far I've avoided it.  Do you use Apithor or a diy delivery system?

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

Offline ShaneJ

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Re: Have a crack at this ?
« Reply #7 on: August 03, 2012, 09:25:01 pm »
I'll get some pictures of the trap that I use for both gel and powder type poisons.
Shane

Offline Intheswamp

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Re: Have a crack at this ?
« Reply #8 on: August 03, 2012, 09:49:17 pm »
I picked up some beetle barns last year thinking if worse comes to worse I would have them to use with fiprinol.  I hope I can stay the course with the oil traps, though.  Time will tell.

I'm toying around with ideas for a bait hive.  Something that will give off the smell of a hive going bad.  My thoughts are to use a five gallon bucket and cut narrow 1/2" long slots in the upper region.  Possibly even cut some windows and glue some nylon window screen over the windows to allow the smell to escape easily or maybe just drill numerous small holes around the sides.  Put some whole over-ripe bananas, some melon, and whatever other fruit I happen upon in the bucket, add a half gallon of apple cider vinegar and a half gallon of cooking oil....and see what happens.  The idea would be to give off a "large" scent, such as a bee hive would give off.  Maybe even smear a little roach bait gel around the upper inside walls.

Putting it in the apiary seems like it would probably draw beetles not only to itself but also to the bee hives.  Placing it further away I think *might* lure beetles from the hives or at least detour arriving beetles away from them.   Maybe three buckets positioned a hundred feet or more from the apiary surrounding it in a triangular shape?

Something else I'd have to figure out is how to keep the ants out of it..we have plenty of those.<groan>  I'm thinking of hanging it from a tree limb with tangle foot covering the rope.

I've thought about smaller ones, too, using 20 ounce plastic drink bottles hanging here and there...they could be used for "fishing".  When you get a small bottle getting lots of action place a bucket there.  Ah well, I'm probably rattling on.

Just some ideas that I've been tinkering with.

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

Offline Anybrew

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Re: Have a crack at this ?
« Reply #9 on: August 04, 2012, 01:22:12 am »
Hey Ed, the trays are not disposable and are cookie baking trays I will try to post an image of them.  I have used Apithor bait stations as well they work well.

Cheers
Steve

I will post a image on the Facebook page as I don't know how to do it here.

Offline Intheswamp

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Re: Have a crack at this ?
« Reply #10 on: August 04, 2012, 06:44:22 am »
Steve, here's a little picture tutorial on using Photobucket to post pictures here on Beemaster (and elsewhere, too).  You might want to check it out when you have some free time.

How to Use Photobucket to Post Photos

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

Offline Joe D

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Re: Have a crack at this ?
« Reply #11 on: August 04, 2012, 10:38:11 pm »
How I use the fipronil, is take a dvd case, put a few somall holes in edges,(drill or hot ice pick), in the center of the case put a dab of crisco shortening and make a circle of fipronil around the shortening.  The SHB are supposed to like the crisco.  when I bought my hives they had lots of shb, I did this last winter into the start of spring.  Didn't hardly see any then until lately.  I removed honey supers first of the week, had some dvd cases made up, and as I removed the supers would install a dvd case.  I also had some containers under the SBB with used cooking oil and apple cider vinegar during the spring and summer.



Joe

Offline AllenF

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Re: Have a crack at this ?
« Reply #12 on: August 04, 2012, 11:17:16 pm »
Don't use Fipronil with honey supers on.   

Offline Tugboat

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Re: Have a crack at this ?
« Reply #13 on: August 05, 2012, 05:54:22 am »
Has anyone tried T.K's beetle frames? Just saw the ad in aus beekeeper. looks like it (the idea) could be a winner.

Offline the-ecohouse.com

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Re: Have a crack at this ?
« Reply #14 on: August 06, 2012, 10:22:32 am »
you can get the trays from kmart...trouble is they always seem to be out.

Offline Intheswamp

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Re: Have a crack at this ?
« Reply #15 on: August 19, 2012, 02:29:12 am »
I ended up simply adding some 3/4" wood to the railings of the screened bottom boards and using some heavier baking pans that are 1" tall.  Here's a link to what I did.... http://forum.beemaster.com/index.php/topic,38714.0.html

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

 

anything