Hi All/Lloyd
 
It is interesting hearing now the comparisons between the bees here
and in the US.
 
(BTW-I have seen hive beetles in the mountain bee race in Lesotho at
10000 ft plus above sea level - in an are which gets covered by snow
for many months a year)
 
Lloyd asked whether I ever have seen larvae in the hives -the answer
is yes - in other peoples hives, and once in my own - an observation
hive.
 
My disaster- I set up an obs hive, with inadequate temp regulation
and the brood cluster was on one frame not two for a few hours- when
I fixed things they incubated the brood diligently, even although it
was capped. They incubated it for 7 days, whereupon it imploded,
releasing hundreds of larvae and a foul smell - which dripped down
and stained a carpet. The bees absconded. The next round I used a
much stronger hive and crammed them all into the obs and this did not
happen again- hence my observation that damage occurs when the bees
don't guard the cluster.
 
In others hives- sometimes when people move bees they do it by day
-leaving bees behind- such hives get zapped a bit by beetles, but not
badly. If ants make a hive abscond, the beetles destroy it fast if
there is brood. AND PESTICIDE - Bees will die at much lower
concentrations of all pesticides I know than hive beetles. I have
seen beetles in a hive which had been killed with a can of DOOM -a
local contact killer for cockraoches and ants (Pyrethrum and
organophos based) this spray lasts for 4 weeks. A friend of mine
takes his bees to apple orchards, and he had a few dead outs from
pesticide/beetle damage this year. That is the only time I have heard
of a real hive here dieing.
 
I will contact some of my friends who kept italians in the '50's when
the government here was giving them away. Maybe they had beetle
problems. I know they said the bees were ratty and not worth the
effort of requeening as far as the honey crops were concerned. The
reduced crop may have been because of beetle problems.
 
If the florida conditions are good for the beetles, then so will
those in Kwazulu-Natal and Mpumalanga province(where Dr Shim went).
Climatically they are similar, but slightly hotter.
 
Keep well
 
Garth
Garth Cambray           Camdini Apiaries
15 Park Road
Grahamstown             Apis mellifera capensis
6139 South Africa
 
Time = Honey