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I've been keeping this blog for all of my beekeeping years and I am beginning my 19th year of beekeeping in April 2024. Now there are more than 1300 posts on this blog. Please use the search bar below to search the blog for other posts on a subject in which you are interested. You can also click on the "label" at the end of a post and all posts with that label will show up. At the very bottom of this page is a list of all the labels I've used.

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I began this blog to chronicle my beekeeping experiences. I have read lots of beekeeping books, but nothing takes the place of either hands-on experience with an experienced beekeeper or good pictures of the process. I want people to have a clearer picture of what to expect in their beekeeping so I post pictures and write about my beekeeping saga here.Master Beekeeper Enjoy with me as I learn and grow as a beekeeper.

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Wednesday, April 24, 2013

Trying Out a New Small Hive Beetle Trap

Jeff and I decided to try out a "new" small hive beetle trap.  I put the "new" in quotes because I think I have owned the kit for this trap for three years, but never have used it.  It is from David Miller in Jackson, Tennessee and I bought it at the Young Harris bee institute about three years ago (maybe four???) 

Jeff put it together and we decided to test it on one of Sebastian's hives, so we installed it on Sunday.  We'll follow up and let you know if/how it is effective. 

Below Jeff is deciding which extension to use - it came with an extension to make it useful on an eight frame hive which is what we are running at Sebastian's house (and everywhere).


Here Jeff is adding the section which is screwed onto the trap.  The trap goes on the front entry of the hive.  It provides an entrance for the bees with a screened floor so that the small hive beetles fall through the screen as they enter the hive.

Below you can see the trap attached to the hive, waiting for the bees to notice their new entrance.


Jeff slid in the oil trap.  It comes in on the side, is comprised of three chambers, each filled with oil to drown the icky creatures.  


The bees were a bit confused about their entrance, but they were beginning to figure it out when we left the apiary.

The trap kit included some soft screen to put over the inner cover opening to keep SHBs from entering through the top.  We didn't have a staple gun with us so we didn't put that on the hive, but may at our next visit (I have to get over my fear of the staple gun which is IMMENSE).  However, advice in the kit says that the bees may propolize the soft screen.......hmmm, now there's a rationalization for not getting out the staple gun!

6 comments:

  1. I haven't read all of your posts, but do your hives have solid bottom boards? All of mine have screened bottom boards and I have never seen a beetle in any of my hives.

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  2. My hives all have screened bottom boards. I don't know where you are - small hive beetles are in every hive in Atlanta. They are not in all parts of the country. Michael Bush in Nebraska hasn't had SHB in his hives yet. I saw my first one the first year I kept bees. Then they were a small thing but now for the last two years, everyone in this area has small hive beetles overwintering in their hives. They are not a pest that will kill the hive - in fact if a hive is overrun with small hive beetles, generally the hive was weak and the SHB took advantage as will the wax moth.

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  3. I lived in Oregon for 5 years and have lived in West Virginia for 1 year. Is there an herb that you can plant near or around the hive that can help deter them?

    ReplyDelete
  4. Actually the best thing is to use beneficial nematodes. There's an earlier post on them - if you use the onboard search engine at the top of the blog.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Hello Linda,
    I am intrigued, How did this hive beetle entrance trap work out.

    ReplyDelete
  6. I still have the hive it is on and sometimes it catches a lot of SHB. One year it was filled with earwigs! I think the best answer to the SHB is a strong hive.

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