help SHB plastic frames

[Ginbee]

Hi everyone, Well, I  need some suggestions. My weak hive I have had sitting and waiting to use for ordered queens has been good until I finally have carnies coming to me out of Ca. Just my luck that hive was clean a week ago. I paid for new queens, and I see my first SHB. one frame with uncapped honey had some larva in it so I removed it and put it in the freezer. What I see as the serious issue is the fact that hive has 3 plastic frames in it. I see the beetles hide in the crevices of those plastic frames. I also can see the bees will take care of them if I can close up those crevices. I was thinking tape, anyone have better suggestions then tape? Because I did watch my bees attack the beetles which are rather fast. My new queens come a week from tomorrow, and I plan to get my hives ready for them on Sunday. Is there any way I can clean these frames by then? I made a plastic CD case trap for them I put in Crisco with borax and powdered sugar basically all I had around the house. I also tore that hive down cleaned the bottom screen board and under it and put borax under the hive, I also put the last two plastic frames on the outside of the drawn frames because they had brood. I want to freeze those frames too, but that hive is only 6 and a half frames filled, they are the lazy hippies who do not build comb. don’t ask me how they are still alive because I do not know. My other two hives are fine with capped honey I went through them too. I do have the area of that apiary covered with a tarp which I will removed when I get home today.

[BrentX]

Had a similar experience with plastic frames.  I did not come up with a good way to close the crevices, and have since eliminated the plastic frames for this reason.  Some wood frames (bottom slot) have the same problem in my opinion.

This time of year I am not to worried about a few beetles, as long as the hive does not have excess space.  As you noted the bees round up the beetles.  I do not use borax or other pesticides in my hives, and tolerate a few beetles, especially this time of year.  Best defense in my opinion in a strong hive, but getting some sun on the hives helps too.

[Diogenes]

Silicone caulk in the gaps will be the ticket. Preferable if you use an acetic acid based caulk. (read the ingredients)

Humidity cures the caulk, so smooth it with a dry finger. I've made amazing messes with the old wet finger trick until I learned that. Wet finger works for smoothing latex caulk.

If you use the acetic acid based caulk you only need to wait for it to skin over. Otherwise, let it cure for 24 hours.