A decade ago they were number one for me as well. For the past 6 or 7 they have only been a nuisance. And to think I got here solely by dumb luck. Go figure. 


Your not the only one to say that!  Heard it over and over.   Still not clear if the bees get better at handling them,  Our management skills get better or if somehow they stabilize.     I long for that point.   I still hear though that even those who have gotten "used" to them,  wish we had a soulution. It seems to me most have just "gotten used to them"  not really addressed the problem.  Much like mites we are learning to cope.


Obviously  there was more to your changes than dumb luck,  I would hope you didn't think I was implying that at all, if you did your misreading.  All the things you mention are steps in the right directions.  For some of us some of those steps are extremely difficult.  Such as only one super at a time,  during a short flow here that’s a nightmare with a large number of hives. Choosing between crowded and swarmy  and too many bees,  vs SHB predation.
If you do a lot of honey one of the things you learn is that large hives can eat your honey very fast,  so it’s a tough balance.  Trying to manage space in a large number of hives and yards  means something is going to fail,  either lots of swarms, or beetle problems.  In the past the standard for my yards has been 2-3 supers each and queen excluders.  Excluders are gone now as they can really aggravate the issue from my observations.
Extracting within 24 hours  messes with things also.  Yes,  I am doing it too,  but it sure is difficult when you run a large extractor and only have a small number of supers to run.  Like the other day we pulled 35 supers from so hives that were in cotton.  Had to pull the hives as they needed to spray,  but 35 supers  is not enough to fill the extracting line up.  Would have much preferred to hold them a week till we pulled some more, as you mentioned,  not an option right now.



This season an environmentally controlled storage for honey supers and deadouts is in the works.   Seems fumigation is not as effective on SHB as it is wax moths. The PPM of phostoxin needs to be higher to kill beetles than moths,  either that or they re-infest a lot faster. 

You mentioned soil treatments as "too late"   I think I disagree...  I cannot stop adult beetles,  they come in from anywhere.  We can however limit the breeding successes. Seems to me that will help control the later season flush of adults.  The problem I have run into so far with soil treatments is rain washing them out (gaurdstar in particular)  its life in the soil is hugely dependant on rain not diluting it. I really hope the nematode applications will be successful on a large scale next year. The 2 yards I used it in this year seem to help,  but with only 3 yards out of 30+ having real issues I cant say that was the solution.  I do plan to seed every yard next year.


What I keep hoping for,  is that since I am both migratory and in the north,  somehow,  I can "reset"  wipe out the populations and be beetle free again.  But so far when late July hits,  I lose some.  
A really great friend and beekeeper in OH says its because I raise pollen hoarders,  and to much pollen in my hives.  And compared to his,  hes right.  Is that a factor??  Not sure yet,  but it’s a brilliant observation  but how to apply it??

Charles

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