Hello Randy & All,
Maybe the most current research ( and older research ) which might help
for your talk.
Strong hivess are the key to SHB control!
Private beekeeping research has found SHB is starting to pupate in the
hive. Although calls to south Africa say they have never seen SHb pupate in
other than the ground we are seeing pupation in comb (similar to wax moth).
All you need is a band of gardstar across the ground in front of the hive
entrance to control ground pupation.
Closing all openings in bee boxes and reducing the entrance helps the bees
to keep SHB levels low in hives.(Delaplane 2006)
SHB flys in swarms ( Pettis 1998).
SHb causes a yeast to develop in the hive which acts as an atractant for
other SHB in locating a hive to slime ( Delaplane 2006).
Coumaphos strips under cardboard are ineffective methods of SHB control(
Delaplane 2006)
SHB first moves into honey supers and then into the brood area ( Delaplane
2006)
Most honey house SHB problems come from bringing mature SHB in with the
supers. Bee go & honey robber do not repell small hive beetle like bees.
The SHB will move into cells and hide instead of exiting the supers. We
need research in this area.
We are working on other solutions but only in research stages.
Bob
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