..."Do they do the same with SHB eggs and larvae?"      Do the honey bees consume SHB eggs and larva?

Mr. Darrell,

While honey bees may cannibalize their own eggs and brood, when a colony is lacking adequate protein stores, I am not aware of the honey bees consuming SHB larva or eggs as a protein source.  It would be nice if they did as it would be a real problem solver  (we would be able to confine the bees from foraging and possibly force them to root out and consume all of the SHB larva and eggs in the colony).

I only know they should eject the SHB eggs from the hive.    From what I have observed, the honey bees seem to avoid the mass of squirming SHB larva which might pile up on a solid bottom board.  It may be they are coated with the same slime which they leave on the frames which is repulsive to the bees.

This was observed when I put a robbing screen on a weaker hive in one of bee yards.   The robbing screen entrance was about 3 to 4 inches above the level of the bottom board.   The SHB larva seemed quite confused and congregated at the blocked hive entrance.   The bees in the hive, avoided the squirming mass.

This is one of the reasons, I have switched back to solid bottom boards.  Screen bottom boards are an easy exit for the SHB larva and enables them to more readily reach the ground to burrow into it and pupate into an adult.   Not to mention, if the SHB adults cannot gain entrance through the front door, they can easily scurry in and out of a screen bottom board.

On my few hives which still have screen bottom boards, I liberally coat the shut off board (which slides in underneath the screen bottom board) with vegetable (canola) oil.    SHB adults and larva which drop onto it usually die before they can trudge through the oil to get out.    Not really a control, but it makes me feel better knowing some of the buggers meet an early demise.

This Spring when I do maintenance (replacing bottom boards, reversing brood boxes, removing and replacing a portion of old comb frames,  removing queens to prepare a colony to re-queen them, etc),  any remaining screen bottom boards will be replaced with solid ones.

One of my screen bottom hives is approximately 3 to 4 feet above the ground, sitting on an OLD concrete trap house which is a concrete bunker box which clay pigeons were flung out of for trap shooting.    That hive has SHB in it, just like every other hive in the bee yard. 

If the RNAi approach to Varroa Mites ever reaches fruition, I hope the next target is the SHB.

Steve 

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