Has anybody tried Beetle Bee Gone? Bee Weaver says it's chemical-free. The bees are supposed to chew on it and it gets fuzzy and becomes a trap for SHBs. $7.95 for 48 sheets. They recommend 1 sheet per brood box. if it's effective, it might be a good deal.
Gary
Never heard of it ..... will be looking it up?
Quote from: sc-bee on July 29, 2014, 09:41:16 PM
Never heard of it ..... will be looking it up?
Same here.
Not too much info. Does not sound promising.
Beetle Bee-Gone
S I M P L E
Insert one or more Beetle Bee-Gone sheets in your colony where hive beetles congregate. Your bees will chew the sheets and turn them into 'fuzzy' hive beetle traps. Once hive beetles make contact with the "fuzzed up" sheets, they become ensnared and die.
E F F E C T I V E
For full strength Langstroth hives, use one to two sheets per brood chamber. For Kenyan top bar hives, use one to two sheets per 10 combs.
P R E V E N TAT I V E
Place Beetle Bee-Gone sheets wherever you find hive beetles or wherever they are most likely to lurk, depending upon the season. In cooler weather, beetles prefer the interior or areas immediately above of the brood cluster, or under the cover. In warmer weather, beetles move down to avoid the heat. Place your Beetle Bee-Gone sheets accordingly.
R E P E AT
When you next work your hive, remove the "fuzzy" used sheets—along with trapped hive beetles, and insert new sheets.
$7.50 for a Pack of 48 sheets. No added shipping cost if you are also buying queens
This kinda sounds like the old "Handi-Wipe" or "Chux" trap. I tried it above the inner cover. If it is the same thing, what was recommended was to "rough up" the wipes...getting them fuzzy....wash them, rubbed them against something rough, etc.,...make them fuzzy. Supposedly the barbs on the beetles legs get caught in the fuzz and they can't get away. My concern was with trapping bees in the "fuzz". I ended up putting my on top of the inner cover that had the escape hole screened over...no bees could get into it. I just this past weekend removed two wipes that had been on top of the inner cover of two hives for a over year....these never caught a beetle which is the same result that I got in a couple of other hives where I had removed the wipes a long time ago. Just didn't work for me. This is something that some beeks came up with down in Australia (I believe it was) and who said it worked well for them. Maybe I didn't do something right. :idunno:
Of course, I may have just typed all of this and "Beetle Bee Gone" is nothing like this. Seems to me, though, that if the beetles could get tangled in the BBG fuzz then bees could get trapped, too. Somebody get some and report back! :th_thumbsupup:
Ed