Randy Oliver wrote,
<However, we've been exposed to the beetle for some
years now, and there is some evidence that it does not reproduce well in our
dry climate and hard soils.  A few Calif beekeepers I've spoken with who
have picked it up in almonds have seen beetle levels drop in their
operations, rather than increase. >

To all,
We had a great opportunity to speak with Dr. Keith Delaplane this past weekend at our Kansas meeting.   He mentioned that his work is now focusing on SHB instead of Varroa.   He has spent the last ten years working on Varroa and establishing Economic Injury Levels and Thresholds for Varroa in colonies and IPM techniques that can help reduce some of the need for chemicals.  He will be working on establishing the same for SHB and mentioned the difference in soil types.  My first notice of a type of Nematoad that attacks SHB larvae in the soil was this weekend when Dr. Delaplane said Nematoads would be the area to investigate.   If my notes are correct the Nematoad is Herohabditis - Megidis.   It is his feeling that these nematoads thrive in certain soil types and not others and there will be research to determine if that is the case.   If it is the soil type, unbalanced PH or perhaps natural hosts that thrive in these soils that the nematoads normally prey upon.  It has been k!
 nown now for a time that something is going on in the spread of SHB and they are not as successful in some areas as compared to others.   Perhaps this is the answer and providing the area around our hives with these nematoads will provide another non-chemical treatment for SHB in areas where soil nematoads are not present in large numbers.  I certainly hope this is the case as I would like to minimize the use of residual pesticide soil treatment.
I have not found this particular nematoad for sale at any of the sites I use for beneficials such as buglogical.com.  I've used nematoads as they seem to cut down on pecan borers and affect as many as 200 types of insects that pupate in the soil.  Last time I bought 10 million of the bacteriophora nematoads they shorted me by a few thousand however.
The first time I saw a picture of a full blown infestation I was ready to give up beekeeping altogether, but after two exposures to SHB in the last two years, I can tell you they are not the horrific situation I feared and I don't think it will be anywhere near the problem that mites have been, at least in my area: hard clay soils in bottoms and pretty alkaline.   
The answer is keep hives strong and hived in space they can cover.   When I have a hive that starts suffering, I requeen and knock back to a single during recovery period. If they don't fill a single, combine.  I completely eliminated two infestations thus far  by isolating affected hives in the fall and winter and manually knocking beetles off of frames into oil filled pan.  Trapping didn't work at least in my situation.  The beetles seem to like to winter in strong hives and will abandon weaker ones to almost cluster together in larger numbers in hives better able to survive the winter, kind of like ladybugs and box elder bugs.  It is time consuming and something you can do if you don't have 100 hives affected.  It's just not been the problem I anticipated.  A yeast attractant is also coming soon that might make for better baiting of traps.
Is anyone in California doing research on why SHB isn't taking off there?
Tim Tucker

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