I have been carefully pondering how to put this tighter,  its probably still a bit disjointed, as it’s a complicated issue,  and  I need to get it out and clear my head.

First,  to Professor Bromenshenks  point on chickens,  yes they love them and will help clean up messes,  but they are no prevention.  First  chickens wont normally pick bugs off a beehive.  Discretion being the order of the day.   Most beetle activity is after chicken bedtime.  Larva move right after dark.  Some will scratch larva but not too close to a hive where most land.  Just for numbers  I have about 75 hives and 60 to 100 free range chickens.   Beetles are a huge problem in the home yard. (my fault)


Now to beetle issues.  I have been fighting them for about 3 years.  Pretty aggressively this year.  While some here would disagree,  we should keep in mind beekeeping is local.   Depending on climate and soil conditions they can run from no big deal,  to a nightmare. Guys like Randy out in CA will never have the issue we have here in my yards.  The reason is actually simple.   Beetle Larva need wet damp soil to pupate.  Really dry sandy areas have less issues then damp soils with lots of moisture.  While I am here discussing soil lets tackle that thought completely.   You hear a lot of "experts" say full sun and strong hives  and beetles are not an issue.  Well those people need to sit down and be quiet.  Its not completely true for everyone.   Soil type and moisture content is really the key to the level of your problems.   In my area you can time the surge in beetles to summer rains.  If we go 2-3 weeks without rain in June/July,  you can count on a huge spike of numbers 2-3 days after a good rain. 
 
We also see a lot of parroting of the concept of "full sun"  Like a lot of bee myths such as tanging,  it's not really true  but looks good and sounds great.  Full sun will not solve your problem,  and full shade will not cause your issue.  Full sun can help dry out the soil so beetles are less successful at pupating,  but in say a well covered with weeds field,  its matters little.  The larva will reach a ground covered with thatch and burrow in.  Full shade is not a big deal though.  I run some yards in the shade and no difference.  I just came from 4 days in northern OH where we worked 500 hives,  all in deep shaded woods,  no beetle problems at all.  Only saw 2 in the 4 days.

 Full sun is great to kill larva on a bottom board.  On a 85 degree day their life span in full sun is about 15 minutes.

The strong hive concept,  Wow,  as ambassadors to beekeeping we should be ashamed to say that. Do we really suspect beekeepers are keeping weak hives on purpose?  What a person battling beetles hears is "you idiot,  I am a better beekeeper and its not a problem for me".   What we need to be saying is keep CROWDED hives.  So the free roaming beetles don’t have it easy.  
For my operation this has been a huge problem.  I used to pull honey all summer,  putting wet supers right back on a hive.  That’s a problem now.  For example,  my 4 strongest hives sit right in front of the honey house,  they are also my breeders.  This Aug 1 or so  I pulled honey again.  Now theses are double deeps with 3-5 supers each.  All 4 produced will over 120 lbs this year.  The two on one side of the pallet had 3 full supers each again.  Pulled, extracted and put back same day.  And yikes they were full of bees!.. I noticed over the next couple of days more bearding every day.  I just assumed more bees were hatching,  and it was hot so didn't think much of it.  The rain started and the bees did not go back in,  dumbfounded I opened them up to find them completely slimmed and lost.  In a period of 5 days.  I suspect when I put wet supers back most of the bees moved up (it was warm enough) and left the brood nest thin.  That let beetles lay eggs everywhere.  Just an experienced guess right now.    

But what we need to advise people is this,  well covered frames.  If beetles are a problem in your area then keep crowded hives.  Crowded being the key word,  not strong.  Yup  it’s a problem with swarming also, double edged sword. I suspect once you get the hang of different management,  they are less of an issue. Keeping hives with no extra "space" is a key,  but difficult to do on large scale where we are used to adding space all summer.

Now,  how do you know you have problem? 1 or 2 here and there and your probably seeing beetles that are trying to move in,  but not much luck.  If you see 5-10 beetles,  they ARE breeding successfully in your hives.  Usually in the brood. One bee larva will feed around 20 beetle larva.  You will almost never notice.  I did luck into one this year while our state inspector was looking,  he was shocked!  Popped open a pierced capping and several beetle larva quickly crawled out (to fast to photo)  I also note that I run about 35 yards in a 30 mile circle.  This year  2 yards in particular had big problems,  and yards 5 miles away were never an issue.

I mentioned rain as a trigger,  I also strongly suspect that the summer brood contraction is an stimulant.  I see a lot of infestations start in the pollen band.  When the brood starts to contract I believe that allows an extra day or two for eggs that were hidden in pollen to hatch.  I notice that hives that are pollen hoarders(yes we have them)  hives that are short on pollen seem to have less issues.

You should also note that "common wisdom" says beetles move in after the hive leaves/dies.  Another Wives tale.  While it certainly does happen at times that way,  we have to accept that beetles can do and will destroy a hive.  They lay in the broodnest and at some threshold  get ahead of bees.  The bees then become discouraged, and often move outside the hive,  or up into a super,  and at last resort abscond.  It seems to me that threashold is around 30-40 beetles.  Some haves are more aggressive than others,  but at that point its deep trouble for the hive.

Now  I think I have that covered lets talk soulutions.   Salt on the ground, gaurdstar, dry sand, anything to prevent pupation is a great help  Some research says nematoades (next years test for me)  are the real long term keys.
Having adults in your hive and attempting to trap them is a fun discussion,  but it misses the point.  Like war,  at that point your loosing.  You need to get ahead of them,  not battle adults. Beetle blasters and traps all work to some extent  but limited.  Beetle baffles seem to work pretty well but are not cost effective on large scale yet (working on it)  The beetles have a weakness,  they like to be horizontal and walk the bottom boards around the edges many times before they walk up the sides.  If you crack open hives you will also notice you never see them upside down.  They prefer to be right with the world.
   As a last resort cumaphous is approved for in hive use  and does work,  but of course we also know it can cause queen issues  so a decision has to be made.  I have opened some this year with a few hundred beetles and cumaphos did save them.  I am also working on getting some traps they have been using in AUS to evaluate.  Supposedly they are in shipping.  Should they work well,  I will see what it takes to get approval here.

You will hear and read about Fipronol(Combat) in CD cases.  I would suggewst to you they are very ineffective and not a good idea.  As for swiffer pads/non woven fibers.  Yes they are pretty effective, as traps go they are the best route bar none.  


Charles

             ***********************************************
The BEE-L mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned
LISTSERV(R) list management software.  For more information, go to:
http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html