How is you beetle population

BeeMaster2 · July 06, 2011, 12:37:53 PM

Is everyone seeing a massive bloom in beetles this year. I have screen bottom boards with oil pans and screened top boards and the oil pans in all of my hives are full of dead beetles. Every night i go out and check the screens on top of the hives. Usually I kill a 1/2 dozen to a dozen that are trapped above the hives. Last Night My buddy and I had to work together to kill all of the beetles on the screens. Any where from 30 to 50 on top of each hive and we had cleaned them out the day before. I designed my bottom boards to allow the beetles to go in the back of the hive but they then fall in the oil pans. Does any know of a really good beetle attractant. I made up a jar with slots to allow the beetles in but not the bees. I was told to use oil and apple cider vinegar but all I done is attract and kill flys.
Jim

asprince · July 06, 2011, 01:39:43 PM

I have not noticed as many this year. Please keep them in Florida.

Steve

bassman1977 · July 06, 2011, 02:24:24 PM

I have not seen a single beetle this year. My hives are in sun for as long as the sun is up, and I think this is the reason. Mites are also extremely low for that matter. I attribute this to small cell and full sun.

KD4MOJ · July 06, 2011, 02:49:40 PM

I've only seen one or two per hive during the inspections... far below the 50 or more when I had them mostly in shade.

...DOUG
KD4MOJ

kingbee · July 06, 2011, 02:55:53 PM

Quote from: sawdstmakr on July 06, 2011, 12:37:53 PM... Does any know of a really good beetle attractant...

Not giving you a smart answer but I think a bee hive full of pollen is the best SHB attractant on the planet. I am leery of anyting that lures them into the trap, just looks to me like you are doubling your bees work by attracting more beetles. My SHBs will run headlong into certain death just to get a little peace and quite from the guard bees

CapnChkn · July 06, 2011, 04:49:36 PM

I'd never heard about SHB until I opened a hive last year. I'd read about them, but didn't pay attention as I was trying to get the bees from the hive into something I could work. I'm still wacky about those things. Here I had picked up a swarm, there wasn't a bee in the yard yet, and in 7 days I had them in their box.

I've seen dozens at a time, one of the big guys at the association lost 60% of his colonies last year to them. This year they were there, then they kind of settled to where I see few, and the melons are starting to ripen. They're increasing. I've opened the boxes to see a half dozen at a time.

AllenF · July 06, 2011, 05:51:55 PM

I had been thinking for weeks about just where the SHB went. I might see 2 in a hive and was thinking this is great as I was pulling supers. Then I ran into 2 or 3 hives on tuesday afternoon as I was pulling honey that had dozens and dozens. Back to the old days as my heart sank as I was smashing as many as possible. They either just came out of the ground or ran out of good forage in the open and now looking inside the hives for a better life. I will check some other hives next week and see how many beetles as now in them.

BeeMaster2 · July 07, 2011, 12:15:54 PM

[/img]
Let's see if this works for putting these pictures on this thread.
I guess not. I have some pictures that I took before cleaning out the oil pans. I switched to mineral oil because my mentor said that he has talked to other people using the oil pans and having the same heavy beetle population. I'm real leary of taking away the pans because it kills so many beetles. I had 20 beetles in one pan 20 minutes after I cleaned it out.
Jim

AllenF · July 07, 2011, 08:03:28 PM

Smoke them down into those pans. They run from light so oil the trays before you open the hives.

CapnChkn · July 08, 2011, 01:19:35 PM

Jim,

Are you sending the image file to a server, then linking to it?

The

Code Select

[img] and [/img] tags will point to a location on the Internet. If you're trying to make a link to an image you have on your hard drive, you would have to have a web server set up on it.

I.E. the BBCode

Code Select

[img]http://www.captainchicken.com/pictures/chewed.JPG[/img] points to a location where I keep pictures. The result is this:

Howdy! I lived in San Mateo and Dinsmore for about 25 years. Mosquitoes, Rain, and Summer heat have proven worse here in TN. Go figure...

L Daxon · July 08, 2011, 11:03:27 PM

I have 3 hives and I get into them about once a week and I have seen maybe 4 beetles total all season. Guess I am lucky. Hives are in full sun.

Linda D

BeeMaster2 · July 25, 2011, 12:55:58 PM

Quote from: ldaxon on July 08, 2011, 11:03:27 PM
I have 3 hives and I get into them about once a week and I have seen maybe 4 beetles total all season. Guess I am lucky. Hives are in full sun.

Linda D

From talking to several different beeks I think that full sun is the answer. I plan on building a new base unit in the sun and moving the hives. I also have 2 hives at my neighbors house and after our bee inspector mentioned moving them into the sun, he trimmed his tree back to allow more sun and there are a lot less beetles moving into those hives.

CaptChkn,
Thanks for the help. My son is putting this picture on the web and will post as soon as I have a link. This is about a weeks worth of beetles in this hive. I looked at this hives oil pan yesterday and after 2 weeks the pan has a solid layer of beetles on the bottom. That was after a full inspection with our bee inspector. This hive is packed solid with 5 supers and it has had heavy bearding since the inspection.

Francus · July 25, 2011, 01:09:22 PM

I have been lucky. I have two hives. I haven't seen any in the package hive and only a few in the feral hive.

After I saw some a few weeks ago I put in Beetle Blasters, but only one. They hang between the frames and you put mineral oil in them. In theory, the bees chase the beetles to the blasters and they fall in. That said, after one week it had only caught 3 beetles and I removed them. A week later and I haven't seen any.

My hives get the shade until about 10 then full sun until the day is done. Maybe that helps. I have screened bottoms and screened tops. I also make sure after I go into the hives that I clean up any wax I scraped off from the ground and dispose of it.

luvin honey · July 25, 2011, 08:06:35 PM

No beetles yet, 3 years into this hobby :) (crossing fingers!)

schawee · July 25, 2011, 11:05:15 PM

i have 80 hives and i see very few shb in my hives with alot of hives with no shb.i keep all my hives in full sun. .......schawee

CapnChkn · July 26, 2011, 03:17:09 PM

Those things are freaky aren't they?

I had never heard of them until last year. I mean, I was reading around in the forums, looking over new information, and trying to get bees out of a hive left in the barn by my Father about 3 years before. That's the one you see in the picture.

I skipped over information concerning the SHB, and concentrated on how to get those bees in a manageable hive only to have them abscond. I opened the hive after getting a veil stitched up, and was greeted with this crazy sight!

No inner cover, they'd attached the comb to the outer telescoping cover, and in the heat the combs had fallen. There were grubs crawling through everything, the combs were shiny and nobody would touch the honey. It didn't smell like rotten oranges, but it didn't smell right.

I've been keeping an eye on them this year, 7 days after I had housed a swarm I had them crawling through the hive. Those bees absconded. I have 3 colonies now, and they seem to be doing well. I've started them in 5 frame nucs, and when they're about to bust, I move them into successively larger housing. They're in full sun from about 8 am to 3 pm. They're over concrete except for one hive which I don't worry about because they attack everything including me. They're off in the woods.

I still see them, not in huge numbers, but I don't see the larvae. 2nd season of experience with the beetles.

T Beek · July 26, 2011, 05:14:00 PM

Last one I saw came with a caged queen from Texas a few years back. They don't do so well up here I guess. My hives also recieve full sunlight all day.

thomas

kedgel · July 27, 2011, 01:12:05 AM

I'm in SW FL. I've not seen an increased influx of shb, and have never seen a pile of beetles in my pans like you showed. The last time I saw that many beetles was when I still had my hives in the shade. I was by my hives one evening and was amazed to see dozens of beetles flying in and entering the hives just before dark. I've not had a problem since I installed sbbs and moved my hives into the sun. I never use pollen patties, by the way, as they ring the dinner bell for the little suckers. There is always plenty of pollen year-round here, though.

asprince · August 01, 2011, 08:20:23 AM

They are backkkkkkkkk! I haven't seen a lot of SHB's until this week.

Steve

BeeMaster2 · August 01, 2011, 12:05:04 PM

Quote from: kedgel on July 27, 2011, 01:12:05 AM
I'm in SW FL. I've not seen an increased influx of shb, and have never seen a pile of beetles in my pans like you showed. The last time I saw that many beetles was when I still had my hives in the shade. I was by my hives one evening and was amazed to see dozens of beetles flying in and entering the hives just before dark. I've not had a problem since I installed sbbs and moved my hives into the sun. I never use pollen patties, by the way, as they ring the dinner bell for the little suckers. There is always plenty of pollen year-round here, though.

Kedgel,
Does SBBS mean Solid Bottom Boards?
Jim