a couple bumgarner snips followed > by my comments...  
when i saw the first shb in one of my hives, i panicked. then remembered the advice, calmed down, & smashed it.

>although a totally fun behavior you do know that this action does little to no good?

since then, i’ve witnessed another hobbyist’s weaker hive w/ very very many shb & a professional’s nucs w/ fewer. the hobbyist was trying to be chemical free so i smashed shb & sprayed his beeyard w/ nematodes (mine, too) to stop his shb bomb. the pro & i gleefully smashed & moved on.

>I have never liked the chemical free label since it is somewhat confusing in that imho everything is a chemical... and as far as I can tell treatment free (another phrase subject to a wide latitude of interpretation) does NOT mean you are a 'do nothing'/beehaver style beekeeper.  Certainly lack of experience will impact just how effective anyone is as a beekeeper. Personally I am (with the exception of experiment here and there and allowing some student experiments on my own hives) I am about as a 'chemical free'/old school beekeeper as you can find and as far as I can tell chemicals are not necessary to control shb. Without a doubt keeping bee hives healthy and growing helps.  And finally a question... does the shb nematode thingee work??? Is there any data to suggest it is in anyway effective??? < ps given the wide latitude of where shb can thrive I would expect that there are plenty of places that shb can thrive outside of any area a beekeeper would seed nematodes????

Gene in Central Texas

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