I can speak to Missouri which has hard winters and had a long discussion
day before yesterday with a commercial beekeeper in Nebraska about the
beetles.

The beetles do winter even without hives around as he sees SHB around his
shop before his hives return from Texas. At times his bees go to California
but when they do they are shipped from Texas  to Nebraska. Returning in
April so the SHb he sees early in March have overwintered.

When the SHb gets into his large building they end up at the overhead  14
Ft. roll up door windows. He runs the door up and his chickens quickly
gobble the SHB up at the base of the door.. The crowd roared when he told
the way chickens love SHB but will not eat the Asian lady bugs at the last
national joint meeting.

So SHb can survive in hard winter conditions without a hive.

>Projections were that SHB would not get much traction in northern areas
>with hard freezes.  The belief was that the adults could arrive and even
>winter in beehives with the bees, but that they would not be able to
>increase significantly.

Adults do winter in hives which will tolerate SHB. Some races will and
others will not. I actually am trying to figure out which of the lines I use
will not tolerate SHB. Weak and queenless hives are always homes to SHB.

SHB has been quite able to reproduce in all soils of Missouri and have
slowly populated the entire state over the last decade.


However in my bees I only see SHb in very very weak hives (which are rare in
my operation) . I hear stories of hobby & sideliners losing all or most of
their bees to SHb at local bee meetings.
I have never lost a hive to SHb and have had no trouble in the honey house
(so far).

>  What are people seeing with comb in storage, particularly unused brood
> com?

unprotected I have seen whole containers slimed. para seems to protect as
does phosdin gas.

SHb will not *slime* when temps are low and when the humidity is 50% or less
from the beeks I have spoke with. Will leave supers at night to go to a
light placed on the floor in the corner of the hot room to be collected the
next morning.

However in Florida SHb brought in with supers seem to start slimming as soon
as brought in so honey is brought in in the morning and extracted in the
afternoon. I have found low humidity seems to have kept my supers from being
slimmed. I use two commercial dehumidifiers. If you want to spend the money
commercial dehumidifiers are on the market which will make your nose bleed
if you work in the area with those on.

>Even if they cannot multiply much, how much damage can a few beetles do?

The SHb lays eggs similar to wax moths and when on a deadout with some honey
in frames makes a mess most beeks (and their help) will not want to clean
up. The bees will not clean up either. Smells like vomit.


>Queens arriving in Canada from the USA are being carefully screened for
>SHB, larvae and eggs.  The screening process has turned up instances where
>SHb was, indeed, in the shipments.  For extra safety, recipients are 
>advised
>to re-cage the queens and to destroy the original packaging and
attendants.

What about packages?

There are many large beekeepers in Washington along the border with SHB
(such as Hanson) and SHb flies with swarms and most likely by itself. Once
you get a pair of SHb in an area it seems the numbers grow. Eventually as
populations rise control at the border will relax. Might take a decade.

In Florida & Texas in early spring you see SHb in most hives but few
problems. As SHB populations rise the SHB tries to hide and in most cases
retreats to the field.(traps are most effective when SHb are trying to hide
from bees)
 However once sliming starts SHb in the area seem to know and come from
miles around to join in the egg laying (fun?).

SHB is considered a pest by most commercial beekeepers of weak hives and
nucs and a problem in the honey house *when* extracting is done at the times
SHB is wanting to lay eggs.

Story time:
I went to Nebraska to get in on buying a load of drums of broken bags of
sugar placed in 55 gallon drums. On the way to the warehouse we stopped by a
commercial beekeeper which runs many hives. We found the beekeeper in his
honey house extracting honey when the temp outside was in the 20's F.
We came out of our insulated coveralls quickly as was 80 F. in the
processing area.

It seems the beekeeper lets the bees protect the honey and comb until late
fall when he pulls the crop and stores when temps are too low for SHB and
moths to cause problems. When he is ready to extract he moves into the hot
room ,then the extracting room and then drums.
I actually had never seen done before but I bet Allen has?

The beekeeper was Bobby Whirlycamp and he runs around 2000 hives (with his
son) between Randolph in Eastern nebr, & Chadron Nebr.in western nebr. in
summer

I actually am considering setting up a similar operation as the summers seem
to be getting hotter (today 97F. with a heat index of 105F.)

Ever see cold weather extracting in Canada Allen? Our clover honey does not
seen to crystallize in the comb like canola does when not extracted promptly

Sioux Bee Honey is *paying* a buck seventy for bulk honey right now which 
catches honey producers attention.

bob

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