I have one of my hives reduced down to about 1/3 and the entrance is over to the right side of the board and there is a small brown lizard which hangs out on the other side and the girls don't mess with him and so far I haven't seen him try and mess with them...this has been going on for weeks now and at the risk of antropomorphizing things it looks like they have some sort of understanding. Hives are outside my home office window and its a boring conference call so I am staring at the activity and the lizard on the landing is just sunning himself after a morning rain shower...all is well with the world. Suddenly I see him dart to almost in front of the opening and snag a small black "bug" as it landed among the bees...The son of a gun is hunting SHB and snagged one in front of my eyes as it landed and attempted a frontal assault on the hive.
I am continually amazed with this new hobby and regret not getting into this fascinating world years ago.
Cool, you have your own guard for SHBs.
I have seen lizards around my hives when the drone evictions start. They will eat evicted drones, but have never seen one attempt to eat a worker. G
You're sitting on a gold mine. Get a kickstarter going. Catch that lizard and start breeding. You could make millions selling an "all natural" preventative for SHB. This is the next evolution in the fight. Beetle blaster manufacturers will go out of business!!! :grin:
LOL....I sat out there yesterday evening with camera in hand sipping a homebrew waiting for a photograph to prove to the skeptics but the Lizard and bees coexisted with nary a beetle incoming so no documented proof of the beetle eating lizard. I don't think he is actively hunting them just an opportunist and I happenned to be watchnig when it happenned.....there go my plans and get rich quick scheme ;-P
Don't sell the little lizard short. He may have figured out a good thing.
Critters are smarter than we give them credit for. For example: Last year a couple hummingbirds not normally found here showed up at my feeder. I thought they had gotten blown off course by a storm and this would be the only time I saw them.
Well, wouldn't you know, this spring they showed up again in my yard hovering in the empty space where the feeder usually is. I hadn't put it up yet because the weather had been very cold. So very quickly I put the feeder up.
Somehow, using their lentil-sized brain, they found their way back to my yard and the exact spot, now empty, where they had gotten a meal last fall.
Amazing.
Sounds like a Cuban anole. I've one apiary in Pinellas county, and there's just about always cuban anoles darting between the sides of the hives and the covers. It's not uncommon for lizards to pick off the bees that miss the landing board.
Up in north Florida, it's more fence lizards and scorpions than anything else, in my experience. I've never seen the scorpions go for bees, but I have had the pleasure of finding them in the hand-holds of supers and hanging out on the top bars of frames in the hives. Only thing I've ever seen one of them eat is SHB.
You'll find some really interesting interactions with your local fauna as time goes on.
Interesting..and well trained
I also have lizards hanging around my hives. I have also seen them snag a SHB. Never saw them attack a live bee.
Jim