what follows is not necessarily in disagreement the gm_charlie's comments but is something of an expanded elaboration of the comments of shb... 

We have shb here all year long with problems more concentrated in the warmer months and with episodes of severe shb outbreaks occurring around rain events.  In places with hard surface (I have one location on a coral out cropping when this area  use to be an inland sea which is a good example) hives have few hive beetles.  Rotting or decaying wood wares or pallets encourages high adult hive beetle population.  Although Charlie suggest shb proliferate around brood areas I would suggest comb with pollen also seems to shift their reproduction into overdrive < both suggest to me that protein is the essential ingredient in their reproduction. Shade encourages soil moisture retention which also seems to encourage shb population (there is an excellent example of this at the TAMU bee lab). Larval shb do not live so well in full sunshine and if you expose a frame of larvae to full sunshine those larvae issuing from frames you can in real time watch them turn color (white to tan to black) and die. In making up nucs (I commonly use Jester EZ Nuc boxes) special care must be taken that there is bee space between the combs and any 'burr' comb is removed from the bottom bar < since I run 9 frames in 10 frame boxes I also tend to make nucs up with no more than 4 frames in a 5 frame nuc box and contact of comb anywhere within the nuc box with almost invariable lead to a shb outbreak.  I have also discontinued purchasing frames with split bottom bars since that exposed area of frame provide a nice niche for the shb to hide and thrive.  As a control I use swiffer duster pads to capture adult shb... basically cut into quarters for the nucs and in half for full blown hives and I place these at the back side of the box on the top bars and as close to the rabbit edge of the box as possible.

Gene in Central Texas and just back from data collection in ND....< 'winter is coming' 

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