I am seeing a few (10 -15 per day) shriveled and dried insect bodies at the
bottom entrances to two of my hives some mornings, although I have yet to do
a really thorough tear-down to find out if I have a real problem.  The dead
bodies are creamy white and black to varying degrees with no visible head,
feet, or antennae - totally dried out with negligible weight.  The bees
actually pick up the dead bodies at the hive entrance with their feet and
fly away with them!  All traces are gone by mid morning.  I hesitate to call
them beetles because I think of beetles as having a somewhat hard outer
shell.

 

Finally today I saw what I think was one of these critters alive having a
stroll on the top cover of one hive - about 3/8 inch long and black fore and
aft with an orange stripe in the middle - the three color swatches each
about 1/3 the length of the bug.  No evidence of any of his relatives inside
the top cover or under the inner cover.

 

Does anybody have any experience with these insects?  Methods for dealing
with them?

 

Jeff Hills

Dorset, VT

 


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