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I went today to feed my new hive and started smashing beetles. The hive top feeder was almost empty and seemed to have several small hive beetles, I was able to kill 7. How many before I will have major problems. I have been reading about CD traps and political signs but I have not been able to find the roach gel yet. So any help with the beetles would be great, Thanks

Are your hives in the shade.The shb love shade. I don't have a problem with them, but all my hives are in the sun.

Early in the year, I noticed the SHB. We put in one of the traps with the oil. We left it in and forgot about it and a couple of months later came back and took it out. The bees were patching the trap openings with propolis and we removed it and had only caught 2 in the oil. Since then we see some but the bees seem to be keeping them in check.

Small hive beetles appear to be a growing problem. Strong hives that cover the majority of the comb seem to be able to keep them from laying eggs and having thousands of larvae slime up the hive. I think we are all going to have to keep closer eyes on our hives to make sure they have the space they need for the flow and as population expands, but taking care to reduce the number of supers if the bee population is too small to cover and protect the majority of the comb. I tried traps in 2 hives this past season without much success. I did manage the numbers of mediums on those hives and crushed SHB's on the inner covers during inspections. Neither hive suffered SHB damage.