The damage from SHB is so slimy and so gross. The queenless hive, left for a week while I went to a conference is in a state of complete demise. SHB slime and larvae were everywhere.
We are in a dearth and bees were also everywhere - not living in the hive - but robbing out any and all nectar that they could find. There were so many and they looked so organized that at first I thought a swarm might have moved in while I was gone, but watching closely it was clear that these bees were invaders.
In most robbing instances the bees are at battle - resident bees against the marauders. In this hive, there were so few bees and they were so quickly defeated that the bees entering the hive to rob it, entered without the caution or hesitancy that robbers usually employ.
Below you can see the sheen of the slime.
Most gross are the slimy larvae of the small hive beetle.
Here's a huge pile of them. I left the hive wide open to the sunlight to get rid of the larvae. I said in an earlier post that I would be ordering nematodes but I didn't do it. That's first on my list today.
I've now lost two hives to small hive beetles - first time in my beekeeping history.
On the good news side, I went to a talk by Cindy Bee at Young Harris on rendering wax. She used the combs that had been slimed by SHB. I ordered a burner (she uses a propane burner but I got an electric one) and will have an opportunity to melt down this gross wax using her methods. Then I'll probably take the product and render it a second time in the solar wax melter.
Very sad, sorry Linda. What can be done to prevent these beetles, anything?
ReplyDeleteHey Linda,
ReplyDeleteGreat blog. What Nematodes are you buying and from whom? I have been considering the same tactic, but there are a million types of nematodes and I am not sure which to get.
thanks,
jones
I'm sorry about your hives. I can't imagine opening it up and seeing all that lavae. Yucky and frustrating.
ReplyDeleteEeeww. So disheartening. I can imagine how gross and discouraging this is.
ReplyDeleteSo sorry about your hive, Linda. We put nematodes in the ground
ReplyDeleteunder our hives last year, and this year we have very few SHB. I got
them from Arbico Organics. I am not promoting the company, just sharing information.
SHB's are yuck. I lost a hive yesterday upon inspection with the culprit wax worms. I really dislike these critters.
ReplyDeleteSadly, what it really amounts to is that the hive was already weak so that the SHB (or the wax moth) could take over. In my strong hives, I see a few SHBs but not many and the bees keep them in check. If the hive is weak for some other reason, they are then easy prey for SHB and wax moth.
ReplyDeletethank you for having your blog… it's a pretty interesting read. I'm not a beekeeper but I started reading about the bee colony collapse disorder which eventually led me to your site.
ReplyDeleteI chose this post to respond to because those worms look exactly like mealy worms that are commonly used for fishing. I started reading Wikipedia about CCD and I also saw that both mealy worms and wax worms carry some type of disease I believe is called Nosea (I think that is how it is spelled). I couldn't help but wonder if there is any correlation between the increased usage of mealy worms and wax worms for fishing and hives dying off, especially since the fishing season and the beekeeping season seem to occur at the same time.
anyhow, thank you for your blog and keeping people informed About beekeeping in general. your blog is highly informative and done in a practical manner… However, every field has acronyms that are used and it makes it difficult for a layperson to figure out exactly what is being discussed per article... perhaps you might start an article with the acronym spelled out so that people know what the acronym means .... SHB