Hello Friends,
I live in west/central Florida.  The hive beetles have arrived at my place.
I seem to be getting an increase in the number of adult beetles, each month.
I have seen very little damage inside the hives, but when I do see it, it is
ugly.  The beetle grubs enjoy swimming around in the honey supers.  The bees
seem to be on top of the damage and are pretty quick to make repairs. I don't
know if the bees try to remove the grubs when they come across them, or
not.The adult beetles are shaped in such a way that the bees can't get a grip
on them to remove them from the hives, even though they try hard to do it.
We have now taken to examining the individual frames of honey with a powerful
backlight, attempting to keep our honey crop from being contaminated with a
beetle nursery.

A friend of mine has had some really bad experiences with this pest.  He
thought he was going to be wiped out.  He drove the bees out of one of his
infested nucs and poured gasoline in it to kill the beetles.  There were,
what appeared to be. cupfuls of adult beetles on the floor of the hive!  The
combs were decimated, full of grubs and running with honey, a real mess.

One of the recommended control methods is using a ground drench of pyrethrums
to kill the beetle pupa. I would like to try using borax.  I have had really
good success using borax as a disinfectant, in times past.  My veterinarian
told me to use it in the dog's kennel to kill worm eggs.  I actually did try
a small amount on an area where a cut out piece of spur comb had landed a few
days before.  The spur comb had sealed larvae in it and the ground underneath
the small piece of comb was alive with beetle larvae.  There were a few adult
beetles in the mix, also.  I applied some borax powder to the area and it
seemed to kill all of the beetle larvae in one day!

I would like to have some advice as to the environmental impact, or other
concerns, in the use of  (20 Mule Team) borax for ground application.  The
bees are situated in among some large trees and I would hate to kill my
trees.  Anyone?

Thinking I can't be the first guy with this idea.   Bob Bassett