Small hive beetle

[ttthay]

The small hive beetle is bout to overtake me . I am using the beetle traps. Anyone have a better solution? Thanks

[Jacobs]

Do you have your hives in the most sun light possible? My hives that are in direct sun have fewer SHB than the ones in partial shade. Are you seeing lots of beetles in the inner cover and walking in and out of cells or are you seeing SHB larvae where they have had success laying eggs. If the hive is not strong enough to protect the comb from SHB larvae, consider removing a super so that there is less space to protect. If you see a number of SHB larvae, there is no need to burn the comb or scrape it out--put the frames in the freezer for 3 days to kill SHB eggs/larvae, and the next bees to have the frame will clean it up.

I have heard of some people putting cedar chips/shavings under their hives, but I have not heard about whether it is effective. Has anyone tried this?

[ski]

I have not tried the cedar but have used Diatomaceous earth under hives. There are too many variables to say how well or if it worked at all. One year I had beetles everywhere the next year after putting Diatomaceous earth under the hives I have had very few beetles. But the amount of rain can make a big difference if the there is little to no rain the ground is hard and I think there are fewer beetles.
You can also use the bottom boards with the built in oil trays, I have heard they work well.

My first thought as Rob has mentioned was to reduce the size of the hive so there are more bees in less space.

Sometimes I think that maybe the beetles migrate through areas. So next year you may not have many.

[ttthay]

Thanks for the info. Yes these hives are in the sunlight all day. I see the the beetles running when I open the inner cover. Haven't really noticed any larva but will check tomorrow. Hopefully the traps have caught a lot the last two days.

[Jacobs]

It sounds like your bees are driving the SHB up to the inner cover. This is what I want to see if there are SHB in the hive because it indicates a hive strong enough to keep the beetles from being able to lay eggs in the comb. In cases where I see SHB on the inner cover, I recommend a swift application of a hive tool to the issue at hand.

[Jacobs]

Some queens may be reducing the amount of brood produced with the shorter daylight and reduction in nectar available. This may leave unprotected areas in weaker hives and give the SHB a perfect opportunity to do damage. I had to change out the deep frame of my observation hive yesterday because SHB larvae were multiplying and starting to slime up an area about the size of a silver dollar. There were not enough workers to keep the SHB in check.

I went to another of my hives with deep frames and found one with capped brood, eggs and larvae, and pollen. I put this frame (with nurse bees attached) in a cardboard nuc box and shook 2 more frames of nurse bees in it. After about 40 minutes of leaving the frame in the nuc box with the top off, I removed the deep frame from the observation hive and put it in the freezer. I shook the extra nurse bees from the nuc into the observation hive deep frame area. Then I put the deep frame and bees in and put the hive back together. After about 10 minutes, all was quiet again in the observation hive, and the queen was walking around unharmed. I would have considered just having the 2 medium components of the observation hive to reduce size, but the permanent base and opening is in the deep frame section, so reduction was not an option.

[Jacobs]

Last winter was mild enough that it looks like the SHB have made a full recovery in my area. Hives that are in significant shade have had a large increase in SHB population. I must have smashed 50+ that a strong hive had pushed to the inner cover. I may be going to traps or the unscented dryer sheet "traps" if this trend continues.