>What I don't understand, I guess, is that beekeepers who winter in cold regions
>seem to be reporting that without repeated introductions, infestations of SHB
>either are no problem, or disappear altogether.
My personal experience has been very few adults seen in the spring if any. Last year was the first year I saw a few in the initial spring inspection. I said "yikes, they do/can overwinter here." Previous to this I had not seen any adults until late spring, early summer, and I was of the hopeful opinion that these were the results of my neighbors package bees or migratory operations. I saw my first larvae a few weeks later (sorry I did not take notes of the dates, I will next time), I had a screened bottom board and pan that caught a few juveniles (20 maybe, they had been chewed). I was worried then that the local populations were sufficient to see increasing evidence and their nuisance level increase. I began watching this hive regularly and saw no ill effect. (It was a reasonably strong hive so if I had to guess, they were able to control the damage/population) I did no trapping/treatments. Adults were seen more so than years previous through the summer and I had many in the supers when extracting (3-10 per box if I averaged the numbers I killed). I heeded the advice given here and only pulled off as many boxes as I could extract in a day. I did extract pretty late (October) and previous to this last year, October was when I would see the most adults in the hives anyway. This winter, I lost no hives, and by the end of November saw no beetles during any inspections. This spring, I saw no beetles during first inspections but did see a few individuals later in early spring before package delivery time. So gut says they are here to stay but maybe, or I hope, they don't get any worst. If our future springs in KC, Missouri, get warmer and earlier, I think their numbers will increase.
Roger Wood
Kansas City, Missouri
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