Hi All
 
I remembered that I had not answered the post from James yesterday
asking about my own tips for the small hive beetle.
 
Firstly - the beetles is a little black thing about the size of the
bees abdomen. It has a shiny waxy look. The larvae are light browny
cream  things with a brown dot on their nose/anterior end (or
whatever it is). They wiggle a lot and can stand heat up to about 80C
for  quite a while - probably an adaptation to breed in fire vacated
brood which would not burn because of its moisture content( in veldt
fires). A frame gone wrong yields about three to four cups of larvae
- I have no idea how the beetle can lay so many eggs - if queens were
like that they would be incredible.
 
I believe that a hive beetle infestation is a sign of sloppy
beekeeping. (leaving beetle foods in places where bees cannot defend
them) The article I quoted recently did not mention that the beetles
will eat brood. I have found that a hive beetle infestation is most
dramatic when they get into the brood.
 
The beetles hide in empty cells in the honey storage area. Very
seldom do you find them where the article I quoted says. Usually they
are at the top of the super - bees that try to get them out probably
supply sugar when they 'lick' the things.
 
If it gets cold they will take advantage of this and lay eggs in
uncovered brood. I have had light infestations after cold snaps
recently on some hives that I had overfed. I think the bees could not
keep the whole brood area warm and the beetles came in and zapped the
unprotected brood cells. The larvae then stay underneath the brood
cappings and are conveniently warmed by the bees while they tunnel
around trashing the frame. This can be quite a problem but the bees
will usually find it.
 
The main danger is if you have a strong pollen flow and a strong
nectar flow as then the bees put pollen and nectar in the supers, the
bees put nectar over the pollen and then seal in the eggs which have
been laid - and then one has a problem as the bees don't constantly
guard the interior of supers and the thing can theoreticaly get out
of control as described in the article.
 
I have tried trapping the beetles by leaving brood out in a pot and
then boiling it when larvae were visible. The honey guides loved it
but I think it hardly made a dent on the population. The beetles are
also surprisingly heat tolerant.
 
The beetles can I believe lower honey yields as they take up bee
time. House bees are asigned to keeping guard over cornered bees. You
will see them trapping a beetle in observation hives. I have seen as
many as five bees guarding one beetle.
 
The beetles hide in the gaps between frames as well. Then the bees
propolise the frames making it difficult to get them out.
 
If I see too many beetles in a hive I try to lower the amount of
available comb space. Feeding also helps reduce the problem (as long
as one does not cause the hive to over expand)
 
The bees cannot remove live beetles interestingly enough - they don't
seem to be able to grip the things which are very smooth and shiny.
 
I have also found that if one tries to strap brood into frames when
doing removals it often leads to beetle problems as while the bees
are all disturbed the beetles sneak in and lay eggs in the brood.
(Hence I don't do this)
 
I believe that bad beekeeping practises, like leaving dead brood
around and also leaving pollen filled supers around can be a problem.
ONce enough beetles larvae are in a frame it disintegrates into a
very warm moosh - at this point the things seem to be able to appear
overnight and can destroy a super in three days.
 
In my area we have a problem with short sighted 'bee keepers' who
basically charge people money to kill bees in problem places. These
hives then multiply the natural population of beetles as they are
hundreds of kilograms of unguarded brood. As a result I am forced to
do free bee removals so that most of these removals will come to me
and then I can stop this multiplication of beetles which spread out
to my hives around town.
 
Finally I have also noticed that the beetles can survive in a solar
wax extractor over short periods - if one is in an area with frequent
cold fronts, it means that they can get a cycle through quite easily
(and a lot faster than that article says)
 
Hope this is of help.
 
Keep well
 
Garth
Garth Cambray           Camdini Apiaries
Grahamstown             Apis mellifera capensis
Eastern Cape Prov.
South Africa
 
Time = Honey
 
After careful consideration, I have decided that if I am ever a V.I.P
the I. may not stand for important.
(rather influential, ignorant, idiotic, intelectual, illadvised etc)