Mesh Size for SHB?

Started by PhilK, February 17, 2016, 10:35:44 PM

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PhilK

G'day,

I'm keen on making some bottom boards with slots or mesh that will allow hive beetles to fall through but not bees.

What size would be good to keep bees out but let beetles through? I am prepared to put bizarre imperial measurements through a unit converter!

Cheers

Cricket

Normally it's number 8 hardware cloth.

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PhilK

I'm not familair with that.. quick Google shows it means there are 8 holes in 1 inch of cloth, so they're 1/8" = 3.1mm.

Is there a range? Thinking of actually just gotting slots into the bottom board itself instead of having mesh, so if the slots or 3.1mm wide I guess that should be enough to get a beetle to hide in it then fall through?

rwlaw

That could work except the bees would propolize the slots shut in short order. I'm thinking if you've got a mesh that's say 3 to 5 mm inside dimension, you'd be good to go, a bee can squeeze thru 1/4" which is a little over 6 mm. There's a lot of guys that use #7 cloth (7 sq to the inch).
Can't ever say that bk'n ain't a learning experience!

Michael Bush

> so they're 1/8" = 3.1mm.

...minus the thickness of the wire.

http://entnemdept.ufl.edu/creatures/misc/bees/small_hive_beetle.htm

Adult female (5.7 ? 0.02 mm) small hive beetles generally are longer than males (5.5 ? 0.01 mm) but both are nearly identical in width (about 3.2 mm). Adult females (14.2 ? 0.2 mg) are also heavier than males (12.3 ? 0.2 mg)

But they can angle through...
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BeeMaster2

If you make them slotted instead of using mesh, the bees can crawl through. I have seen my bees in between supers that I thought were smashed. I touched their butts and they would crawl out. The gaps were less than 1/8". They flatten out their body to do it.
Jim
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Ben Franklin

PhilK

Quote from: Michael Bush on February 18, 2016, 08:16:46 AM
> so they're 1/8" = 3.1mm.

...minus the thickness of the wire.

http://entnemdept.ufl.edu/creatures/misc/bees/small_hive_beetle.htm

Adult female (5.7 ? 0.02 mm) small hive beetles generally are longer than males (5.5 ? 0.01 mm) but both are nearly identical in width (about 3.2 mm). Adult females (14.2 ? 0.2 mg) are also heavier than males (12.3 ? 0.2 mg)

But they can angle through...
Thanks for the link! Length is less important than width (3.2mm) and height (unsure of) I imagine?