Hi Barry

> I was searching the net tonight and found this email of yours.  I have what
> appears to be the small hive beetle.  I noticed these small beetles on the
> inner cover last week in one of my hives.  I took a few to my county
> extension office and they in turn have sent them on to the university.

The innner cover is a favourite place.

>
> Upon inspection under a low power microscope, these beetles look like the
> photos I find off the internet to my untrained eye.  Perhaps you could tell
> me a little bit of their characteristics to see if they match.  One thing I
> noticed was these beetles can fly.  I don't know how far but I did see a few
> of them take to flight when I was trying to catch them.

The new beatles are a red colour and slowly change to a dark balck
colour. They are a bit larger than a match head and fit snugly inside
a worker cell. They will fly, and use this method to distribute
themselves between hives. They will also fly with a swarm, and it is
not uncommon to catch a swarm with a beetle or two in it.

The larvae are 'maggot like' and here one is most likely to find them
in untended pollen stores.

> Dark brown to black in color about 1/4" long.  As of yet, I have not seen
> any down in the brood frames.  Is this where one would normally find them or
> do they like the inner covers more?  I hope to know for sure this week if
> this is what I'm dealing with.

They are corner dwellers, and tend to only go to the brood areas if
the bees don't guard them. In Hepburn and Radloffs Honeybees of
Africa, 1998 (Springer) they document a case where they saw
A.m.scutellata ringing the beetles and sealing them in propolis.
People in the US with whom I have spoken have told me their bees do
not do this. Here the most common place to find beetles is in the top
supers, and in cracks. You will also sometimes see them scuttying
around the bottom boards on weak hives.

Preventative measures you may wish to take will include keeping hive
beetle numbers down. Avoid having beetle magnifying factors around,
like pollen and brood which does not have bees to guard it.

Is this the first possible record for Illinois?

Hope this helps

Keep well

Garth
Garth Cambray           Camdini Apiaries
15 Park Road
Grahamstown             Apis mellifera capensis
6139 South Africa

Time = Honey