Beemaster's International Beekeeping Forum

BEEKEEPING LEARNING CENTER => DISEASE & PEST CONTROL => Topic started by: L Daxon on October 07, 2010, 10:41:13 am

Title: Beetle Time
Post by: L Daxon on October 07, 2010, 10:41:13 am
Should you keep beetle traps on year round or is there a certain temperature/time of the year when the pesky critters are inactive?
Title: Re: Beetle Time
Post by: AllenF on October 07, 2010, 01:00:39 pm
When the bees go into winter cluster, the beetles climb in there also.   Nobody moves around.    What kind of beetle traps are you using?   Use them until it is too cold for them to move around.   
Title: Re: Beetle Time
Post by: L Daxon on October 07, 2010, 04:49:13 pm
I am just using the disposable kind that hang on the top of the frames and you put oil in it and supposedly the beetles will go in an can't get back out and drown in the oil or something.
Title: Re: Beetle Time
Post by: Mason on October 07, 2010, 04:56:59 pm
I have not seen the beetle this year like I did last season.  I poison them with homemade traps made from plastic corrugated realty signs.  I take the traps out during the flow but if I don't have any prospects of honey I leave them in and have considerably reduced the beetle numbers.  I know some don't like to use the poison but dang it works great and a little dab will do you.
Title: Re: Beetle Time
Post by: L Daxon on October 11, 2010, 11:33:35 am
I am a realtor.  Now I know where all my stolen signs go.  :-D :-D :-D

Actually, someone had made a bunch of those corrugated strips and was giving them out free at our last state beekeeps convention.  I didn't know what they were for at the time.  Should have taken a handful.
Title: Re: Beetle Time
Post by: Chuck Cook on January 15, 2011, 10:17:04 am
My SHB population is almost zero this time of year.  Like was stated, I am sure they are there but just not moving around much.  I use the Freeman style ventilated screened bottom board with good success.

Chuck in Jacksonville
Title: Re: Beetle Time
Post by: wd on January 15, 2011, 01:18:46 pm
seemed to fit the topic

Making Small Hive BeetleTraps with the "FatBeeMan" (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h_KDPp8H6PU#)
Title: Re: Beetle Time
Post by: ArmucheeBee on January 15, 2011, 10:49:42 pm
I have beetles, but I don't see them having any impact on my 11 hives.  I don't use any poisons.  I smash them when I can but they are not hurting my hives.  The hive that had the most shb (to my eye) had the most honey per frame this year.  Is it because I use plastic frames???  Is it because i use feral bees???  I don't have varroa problems either.  No chemicals go into the hives.  I use sbb and screen tops from march to october but close them up in winter. 
Title: Re: Beetle Time
Post by: annette on January 15, 2011, 11:45:23 pm
That is a very interesting video by Fat Man. Right now, I do not have SHB, but they say they are coming here one day.

Title: Re: Beetle Time
Post by: wd on January 16, 2011, 12:28:49 am
That is a very interesting video by Fat Man. Right now, I do not have SHB, but they say they are coming here one day.

Small Hive Beetle in California - http://entomology.ucdavis.edu/faculty/Mussen/beebriefs/SmallHiveBeetleinCalifornia.pdf (http://entomology.ucdavis.edu/faculty/Mussen/beebriefs/SmallHiveBeetleinCalifornia.pdf)
Title: Re: Beetle Time
Post by: yantabulla on January 16, 2011, 04:18:32 am
This topic is close to my heart.  I live at Coffs Harbour NSW Australia which is a sub tropical climate.  The last three years have been really wet & SHB are rampant.  I have returned to beekeeping after a 20 year break & dealing with SHB has been a sharp learning curve. 

I use AJ's beetle eaters which help a bit particularly with nucs.  The real key to keeping ahead of them is to keep your hives strong & crowded.  Frames not covered with bees are an invitation to SHB & they will be slimed.

It is not uncommon to lift the lid & hive mat to find 20 to 30 beetles making a retreat into the darkness of the hive.  One tip is to lay the lid (migratory) on the ground  rim up then put the super on top of it.  The beetles will retreat to the darkness.  When you are finished your inspection there will be beetles inside the lid.  Lay into them with your thumb.  The bees will help by herding them into the corners.  Realistically I think it's futile.  Just as many will fly in later in the day.

Another spot that they congregate is in the metal edging around metal queen excluders.  I killed about 50 SHB's from the edge of an excluder today.  Take it a way from the hive & smoke them out then squash them.

It is tempting to use chemical controls however I am resisting that.  Despite the beetles the girls are doing well & I should extract 20 to 30 litres of honey from a couple of hives in the next fortnight if we get a few fine days.

Any frames removed from the hives go into the chest freezer then into several layers of heavy duty garbage bags for storage.  I'm thinking of investing in an airtight coolroom or a bigger chest freezer for long term storage.

Despite being sub tropical my hives are located in a spot that gets light frosts in the winter which I think assists with their control but they really get going in the summer.  They are also doing well in my worm farms.

I have started to keep a nucleus hive on my verandah so that I can have watch them.  It is distressing to see SHB fly into the hive in the evening.  They also fly into my beer which is also upsetting.  As I write this I have a small pile of them on the table next to my computer.

Good luck with your SHB control.
Title: Re: Beetle Time
Post by: annette on January 16, 2011, 02:30:32 pm
Yes, I have heard about them in the central valley and south. But I am in the Northern part and right now, they have not arrived. It is a matter of time.
Title: Re: Beetle Time
Post by: AllenF on January 16, 2011, 02:52:28 pm
I could send you some, then you could be the first to have them in the north valley.   :-D
Title: Re: Beetle Time
Post by: wd on January 16, 2011, 03:34:47 pm
haven't had seen them here either... no thanks in advance Allen ... I can wait
Title: Re: Beetle Time
Post by: VolunteerK9 on January 16, 2011, 04:43:09 pm



Despite being sub tropical my hives are located in a spot that gets light frosts in the winter which I think assists with their control but they really get going in the summer.  They are also doing well in my worm farms.


Good luck with your SHB control.

I wonder if the snows and below freezing weather we've had here in the south this year will have any effect on out SHB populations this coming year? I sure hope so...
Title: Re: Beetle Time
Post by: AllenF on January 16, 2011, 04:58:57 pm
I really doubt it.  They just dug in deeper.   
Title: Re: Beetle Time
Post by: asprince on January 16, 2011, 09:02:17 pm
It was a warm day for a change here in the south so I opened my hives to check their food stores. I never saw so many beetles so early in the year as I saw today. In a couple of hives they appeared to eat the eggs as fast as the queen would lay them. I placed traps in all hives.


Steve
Title: Re: Beetle Time
Post by: AllenF on January 16, 2011, 09:15:03 pm
That ain't good.   I did not open my hives today, just checked to see if bees were flying from every hive.  Rain tomorrow.
Title: Re: Beetle Time
Post by: ArmucheeBee on January 17, 2011, 11:31:48 am
Steve

I don't think I have heard of them eating eggs.  Scary.  Is that what they do instead of eating pollen?
Title: Re: Beetle Time
Post by: asprince on January 17, 2011, 12:13:00 pm
Steve

I don't think I have heard of them eating eggs.  Scary.  Is that what they do instead of eating pollen?

I don't have anything to back it up except: hives with heavy infestation usually have little brood and I see beetles crawling from cell to cell on the frame where the queen is located.

Steve
Title: Re: Beetle Time
Post by: Jim134 on January 17, 2011, 12:16:31 pm



Despite being sub tropical my hives are located in a spot that gets light frosts in the winter which I think assists with their control but they really get going in the summer.  They are also doing well in my worm farms.


Good luck with your SHB control.

I wonder if the snows and below freezing weather we've had here in the south this year will have any effect on out SHB populations this coming year? I sure hope so...


Freezing weather will not kill all  beetles in Norhern Vermont.

             BEE HAPPY Jim 134 :)
Title: Re: Beetle Time
Post by: tim adams on January 26, 2011, 09:50:51 pm
Here in Florida they are less active in cold weather but as soon as it warms up they are right back at it. I keep my traps in year around.
Tim Adams
Title: Re: Beetle Time
Post by: annette on January 26, 2011, 11:12:02 pm
I could send you some, then you could be the first to have them in the north valley.   :-D

Just saw this and I find this very funny. Heck why not!! I'll be ahead of the game when they actually get to everyone else.
 :-D :-D
Title: Re: Beetle Time
Post by: AllenF on January 27, 2011, 03:27:10 pm
PM me your address     :-D   


Title: Re: Beetle Time
Post by: annette on January 27, 2011, 05:41:49 pm
Not!!
Title: Re: Beetle Time
Post by: AllenF on January 27, 2011, 06:37:38 pm
 :lau:
Title: Re: Beetle Time
Post by: David McLeod on January 28, 2011, 07:07:17 am
They also fly into my beer which is also upsetting.

That is VERY upsetting! ;)