Small Hive Beetles, Looming Nightmare?

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Rorie
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Small Hive Beetles, Looming Nightmare?

Unread post by Rorie »

I had an infestation of SHB in one of 12 hives in one bee yard in the middle of winter. I'm talking February 17, in western Massachusetts, at 16 degrees F. I check those hives daily because they're convalescing next to my house, where I can keep a close watch on them. They are recovering from myriad issues (persistent Sacbrood virus, acute paralysis virus, nosema, tracheal mites). There are a variety of queens heading these hives, as they all are from various bee yards. They are from strong stock: Ferguson's Buckfasts, Sue Coby's Carniolans, Adam Finkelstein's Spartans, and several Russian lines from the USDA program. The SHB larvae were dropping out of the top entrance onto the bottom board shelf and into the snow, where they were freezing before getting to soil. That's the good news. The bad news is that this parasite can wipe out a hive in mid winter.

I removed a few hundred beetle larvae and lost a few hundred bees in the process. I worked fast, opening the hive for five minutes at a time, then closing it for ten or so to restore heat.

The afflicted hive was a Buckfast, with pretty significant nosema issues. I was able to clear a few hundred SHB larvae from the inner cover, but didn't dare remove frames at 16 degrees F. The date was February 17, so presumably the SHB eggs hatched around February 1. The hive seemed well in March on a 50 degree (freak, brief) day, but I still haven't had time and temps to pull it apart and take a thorough look. I did remove 1 dead beetle on the clean up day in February. There were quite a few hollowed out mature bee exoskeletons, which I suspect the SHB larvae had fed upon.

I'm very alarmed by the SHB issue. I fear this is a potentially explosive problem. The feed in the photos are winter patties, no pollen. Perhaps I mistakenly left a pollen patty in that hive from early autumn. Or perhaps the SHB doesn't discriminate between carb and pollen patties, as was my assumption.

When I opened the outer cover the SHB larvae were trucking around fast, some diving through the center opening into the hive. I cleared quite a few off of the screened bottom board, where they were frozen. The bees were totally ignoring them, whereas I have seen Bucks and other bees chasing adult beetles. Perhaps the scent of the larvae somehow masks their identity.

We fist saw the adult SHB in one of our bee yards in May 2013 after we purchased a single nuc from Arkansas.
SHB in winter hive.jpg
SHB larvae on bottom board.jpg
larvae at inner cover.jpg
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Rorie Woods
http://abundantharvestapiary.com/
based in western Massachusetts, USA
"stay together/ learn the flowers/ go light" ---Gary Snyder
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Vance G
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Re: Small Hive Beetles, Looming Nightmare?

Unread post by Vance G »

Might be time for a chemical cleanup of some kind. Hand picking doesn't sound like the answer. I know one of the old varroa treatments, I believe apistan kills the beetles. Maybe that could be put in briefly to kill off the SHB.
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Re: Small Hive Beetles, Looming Nightmare?

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I just came back from Florida where the beetles are bad. The hives I was working with had home made bottom boards with a plastic mesh instead of screen. The mesh was to small for bees to get through but the hive beetles and the larvae could pass. Pollen was coming into the hives there and we all see that pollen is dropped onto the bottom board sometimes. There was a metal tray under the hive, dollar store, with about 2 tablespoons of cheap vegetable oil in it. The pollen that dropped through the mesh attracted beetles and/or larvae which got in to the oil and died. There were also beetle traps on the hives that drop between the frames but they never caught a beetle. Where the trays which I was cleaning every day to see what was caught and in the worse hives I was cleaning out 20 to 30 dead beetles a day and the same amount of larvae.
Granted it is winter and you can't change your hives around now but if the problem isn't helped by anything else try this system. The mesh that was used for the bottom board is made for the fish farming industry, as I said to small for bees but prefect to let beetles and mites through.
One problem was the racoons liked the oil too and they would pull out the trays every night for the oil. They couldn't destroy the trays because they where regular cookie sheets, when we used aluminum they chewed those to pieces. A have-a-heart trap took care of them.
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Countryboy
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Re: Small Hive Beetles, Looming Nightmare?

Unread post by Countryboy »

It might be worth your while to revisit this thread.

viewtopic.php?f=8&t=276&p=2989
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Rorie
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Re: Small Hive Beetles, Looming Nightmare?

Unread post by Rorie »

My apologies, I couldn't post for two days.... couldn't get on the internet... seems Verizon wants me to upgrade to a more expensive plan and will try to force me to do so by slowing down my access speeds considerably. So I'll be switching to a different internet carrier altogether.

Meanwhile, I have ordered enough disposable beetle traps and "attractant" oil to treat my hives three times over. I will try trays underneath as well, thanks to Kathy for the suggestion. I treat with formic when varroa counts indicate trouble, but that hasn't seemed to deter the beetles, or perhaps it has and the fact that I've only had this winter problem in a lone hive is a blessing.

The hive has seemed strong at two weeks out and again at four weeks out, although I still have not had opportunity to dig through it thoroughly.

I spend quite a lot of time just observing the bees, from afar and up close. I see things that others tell me can't be happening, like four of my bee yards had tracheal mite trouble last season. Inspectors actually denied there was a problem, as if I was making it up. "Haven't seen that for years," they'd say. Until they visited the hives themselves. Some of these yards were twenty miles or more apart, no shared equipment.

I've posted this to raise a cautionary flag, as a heads up to others. I'm not all that worried about my own bee yards. I'll relocate them as necessary, rotating into yards not used last season. I'll bring in a flock of chickens to the problem yard. TAKE THAT, SHB!

Al hives that survive winter in my convalescence yard get shook swarmed into hygienic boxes to draw all new comb the following spring. The old wax gets put to use in my wax dipper. I consider formerly "sick" hives that wintered over to be especially hardy, and I watch them very carefully to make sure their "issues" are fully resolved before they get re integrated back into their original bee yards.

One of the "issues" last year, incidentally, was a persistent sacbrood virus, that lasted through 7-8 generations in about twenty hives. Re queening did not help. So I left the bees to raise their own queens, and they kept on trying, valiantly, to recover from the seemingly unrecoverable. They finally turned a corner in September. At my wits end, I asked one of my Russian beekeeping friends what they do with persistent disease issues in hives in Russia. He said nosema can be persistent, in which case they add colloidal silver to sugar syrup. Which I did, at 1/4 cup to 1 gallon. Only then did it seem to clear up.

My big concern with SHB is that if I hadn't been checking these particular hives daily, I likely would have missed it, and the afflicted hive would be toast. Most of my hives get visited once a week, sometimes once every other week. SHB can do a lot of damage in very little time. The take over tactic by swarming at night is easy to miss.

Several of my bee yards are located at organic farms where the farmers will not be open to my drenching the soil with Guardstar. Jamie Ellis has had success with beneficial nematodes, and Saundra Wheeler, now at Penn, is patenting a fungal soil inocculant, although both are unavailable to me at this time.

In my case, I suspect one or more SHB wintered over with the cluster. As soon as the queen started laying, or perhaps even before, the SHB started laying in patties. I presume the larvae ate recently deceased adult bees, as indicated by a few hollow exoskeletons on the inner cover. The SHB may also right now be invading brood. Soon I will know and will post again.

BTW, a friend of mine located in a swampy part of Florida manages SHB with Combat roach bait. He started using the little trays, curling up the edges so bees don't enter, but his state inspector objected. So then he switched to using a less obvious baiting method: he takes spent queen cages, changes the screening to #10, I think, hardware cloth, which the beetles can access but not the bees. He then injects the poison right through the hardware cloth and adds a touch of beeswax as an attractant. He buys the plunger type of refill tubes and uses the queen cage traps many times over. I may resort to this as well.
Rorie Woods
http://abundantharvestapiary.com/
based in western Massachusetts, USA
"stay together/ learn the flowers/ go light" ---Gary Snyder
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Rorie
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Re: Small Hive Beetles, Looming Nightmare?

Unread post by Rorie »

Whoops, I meant to thank Karen, not Kathy. My mistake, I apologize.

I'll wait and see on the Apistan. The issue may actually be resolved in that hive, for now. Thank you V for the suggestion.
Rorie Woods
http://abundantharvestapiary.com/
based in western Massachusetts, USA
"stay together/ learn the flowers/ go light" ---Gary Snyder
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karen
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Re: Small Hive Beetles, Looming Nightmare?

Unread post by karen »

I know a lot of FL beekeepers that were/are using Combat roach bait (not approved for hives) they put it in plastic sign board so beetles can get in but bees can not. My brother did try it but has had the best results with the oil trays. To treat the ground you could try diatomaceous earth. Down south some feel they were having success with it though they are still using traps too. The organic farmers may not mind this added to the soil under the hives.
There were some plastic beetle traps hanging between frames in the hives I was working in FL which had slots for oil and a place for pollen. In the weeks I was working the hives I saw 1 beetle in a trap, so not a very efficient method.
Some beekeepers are using handi-wipes between the boxes. The bees shred them trying to take them out of the hive and the beetles get stuck in them because of the anatomy of their legs. Supposedly very few bees get stuck. I hear this is one of the most popular traps in Australia. They burn the wipes after collecting.
Some day I am sure they will hit my area because they are in Maine, they just haven't discovered my yards yet. One farm has a giant compost pile fairly close to my hives so that right there is an invitation for trouble.
Rorie, I am glad you stopped by my table at the SABA seminar to introduce yourself yesterday. Very nice to put a face to a name. I am sure we will see each other again at events since we are both in New England.
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