Blogger Layouts

Saturday, July 11, 2009

Small Hive Beetle update

The thought of those SHB running around in the hive in back yard has kept me up a couple of nights lately. I think I have come up with something. I will use their main defence against the bees as a way to get rid of them. Their best defense against the bees is that they are smaller and can get into the crevasses of the hive where the bees can't go. It was the fact that I had to leave my follower board in the hive that gave me the idea. Glue boards, they work really well for so many other insects that I bet the SHB will be no match for them. The problem is that neither will the honey bee. But the bees can't get behind the follower board in the hive now and the SHB is running amok. I will just have to be extra careful to get to the glue board as soon as I open the hive and cover it, clear plastic wrap should do the trick, and then put a new one back after the bees are secure and can't get at it.

1 comments:

Back to Basics said...

I just read about SHB today. I'll be getting my first package of bees in mid May so I'm very concerned about preventing/controlling these pests! Any update on your experience controlling and removing them? Did the glue board idea work?