I'm not totally free of the pest. Yesterday I saw a few in my two hives that are in my yard and not on my deck. The bees don't like the SHB and when they see one, they pursue it aggressively.
In the picture below two separate bees are aiming for two different small hive beetles. They run toward the beetle and try to discourage its presence in their domain. I smashed the six I saw with my hive tool.
The picture below is a small hive beetle that I injured with my hive tool. The bees finished him off.
Then, as they would with a member of their own kind, a bee (not well-focused) picked up his little carcass and removed him from the inner cover!
I have strong hives this year that seem to be keeping the SHB in check. However, I have all the equipment, including a mouth aspirator to suck the little guys into a trap, for any occurrence next year!
That beast is the on most feared varmint here in germany. As far as i remember 2005 was the year where the SBH was seen in spain.
ReplyDeleteIf this varmint arrives it's maybe not a big impact but the bees here are a bit weak cause of plant protection chemicals ( this ugly bayer stuff ). Hopefully its not the right area for the SBH.