I am lending a friend 75 supers to take to florida next month so went through a few stacks adding 2 undrawn frames in the middle of each. I stack 15 to a stack on a drip tray so I can move them with a dolly. When I got to the bottom of the first, the pan was full of SHB larva and slime. This was a first for me. I went back through each frame expecting to find a slimed one but didn't. All I found was a single moth larva tunel. I dry all my supers out side for a week, weather permiting after extraction. Guess the beetles couldn't find anything they liked in the frames but did find enough collected below. Hope we have a regular winter this year that will put a stop to this
A little snow would be nice down here this winter, for a week, then warm back up. :-D
You won't be saying this 3 months from now when your up to your butt crack in snow. :-D
Quote from: tefer2 on October 03, 2012, 08:16:09 AM
You won't be saying this 3 months from now when your up to your butt crack in snow. :-D
I dont want to plow for 5 months so if it can hold out until maybe Xmas and then beat us until say march, I'll take it
Oh, I don't know why ya'll complain. I mean, most years it doesn't snow *at all*. When it does the kids delight in it, but normally that's only for a day or maybe for an hour. Every few years we will get close to a foot and it shuts everything down...schools, businesses, etc.,....it's really tough! Then there is the infrequent "blizzard" where we may get a foot and a half or *maybe* close to two feet of snow....that shuts schools down for a couple of days and makes things *really* mushy when it melts!!! Shoot, the city and county even start throwing sand on the bridges and flip down those "Bridge May Ice In Winter" signs (I can't remember what does signs actually say as we don't get to read them much except when the teenagers flip them down for a joke). So, I guess ya'll are right...snow does make things tough. :evil:
Hmm, I wonder if snow if kinda like raising honey bees.....it being one of those local things? (http://www.freesmileys.org/smileys/smiley-angelic012.gif)
Ed
Things almost never shut down even on days that I have to plow from sun up to sun down. The school bus gets stuck in front of my house at least a doz times a winter. They just radio a wrecker and off they go. Normal winters do seem to knock down the SHB
What's "snow"?
You know...down your way it'd be that stuff that comes in through Miami on cigar boats and on the west coast it comes in on those new-fangled underwater boats. (http://www.freesmileys.org/smileys/smiley-whacky098.gif)
:-D
So a good winter will kill off SHB?
Kill the grown ones outside of the hives. Safe inside the hives and young in the ground.
frost should kill the pupating larva in the ground. At least I hope so
Anyone know how deep they burrow into the ground to pupate?
Quote from: tefer2 on October 16, 2012, 09:37:28 AM
Anyone know how deep they burrow into the ground to pupate?
good question also assume because they are tropical that my heavy clay soil wont be to there liking
Seems I've read they burrow down 18"-20" in suitable soil.
Ed