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Sunday, August 23, 2009

Bugs in the Beehive

I found a new way to fill the AJ's beetle eater trap. I have this gravy measuring cup that is designed to separate gravy and fat. Since it has a tiny pouring lip, I decided to try to fill the trap with it and it worked beautifully.



But before I put anything back into the hive, I noticed this cockroach in Mellona on the inside of the telescoping cover - gross.


Under Mellona's top cover there were tons of SHBs - see how many there are. I squashed a lot of them with my fingers (gloved!) and with my hive tool.



I dumped dead beetles out of the AJs beetle eaters all over my deck railing. Maybe the wren will eat them. There were so many that it looks like piles of seeds gathered on the deck rail.

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at 6:37 PM
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6 comments:

  1. Yuk! That's a lot of beetles. At least it's evidence that the trap is working!

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  2. Thanks goodness we don`t have that beetle down here yet - it is probably only a matter of time. No bee products are allowed into NZ so we don`t get to try all the gorgeous honeys from other lands .. I would love to see inside the `bee` tree also, I am having a TB hive built for me and am really excited about keeping bees in it later on.

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  3. Thanks for the great posts. I am always eager to hear more about the "Bee Tree."

    I do find it a little funny that you are so eager to slaughter swarms of hive beetles, but will never bear again to kill another unproductive queen.

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  4. I can certainly see your point, but I feel personally invested in the queen and her production and well-being and I can't stand and have no investment in thousands of hive beetles - that's probably the difference - no feeling of personal connection to the dread SHB!

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  5. They say this beetle is now at the border between Canada and the US and it's a winged insect. It's been found in Quebec too but I think they eradicated it there. Let's hope our cold keeps them out.

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  6. I've had the beetle traps on my hives for about 4 weeks now and they are working great. We have not seen any in awhile now and one hive is totally gone. It's working beautifully....
    Vickie in Van TX. Honeybear Farms

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