How many SHB's are a concern

[gottabee]

I examned my frames in each hive today and found at least one SHB in each hive. The max was 5 in one hive but most had two. There were larva in the burr comb and wax droppings on the BB. I killed all SHB and larva and cleaned each hive and frame well. A fellow beekeeper said this was no cause for alarm and the number found is still considered low. DO YOU AGREE AND WHAT WOULD YOU ADVISE???  Thanks much.

[downunder]

No cause for alarm yet! You can take my word on that. I am currently in Australia where SHB was introduced in 2000 unofficially. Unfortunately I had to be the one to discover the darn thing.

I work at a University and am currently studying SHB with a world Authority on SHB, and his group from Germany. They have studied beetle populations in every country they exist.

In our area at present, all hives contain in excess of 60 beetles, more commonly 100plus.

Hives can sustain this number until high humidity and colony disturbance occur.  Then you get a total meltdown.

In fact yesterday we found a hive that holds the world record of beetles collected 2200. This is uncommon and is what is known as an aggregation site (pheromones at work). All I can say is lucky we found them and sucked them up with our vacuum sampler.  

With the numbers you have just keep squashing them for now and removing larva. Make sure you have good ventilation and airflow. Placing a stick under the lid helps dramatically. Don't feed patties while adult beetles are present. This just provides a medium for larval reproduction.

Hives need to be kept strong. Remove any comb that is being neglected otherwise the larva will work from the outside combs and eventually consume the hive. This can happen within 3 days.

An extra hint. If a hive looks like it might break down (greasy sweaty look) remove 1 frame from the all boxes and increase bee space for 24 hrs before returning frames to the hive. This allows the bees to clean the hive and harass beetles which often leave.

Good Luck

[TwT]

I have heard of the Georgia Bee Lab putting 2500 bettles in each of 50 hives and with no treatment , go back weeks and even month's later and the hive still be going strong, they say they lose about 1/3 of the 50 hives when this is done, I'm like evry one else, if I see any in my hives , I got to kill them and begin looking for more , but I have only found and killed 2 beelte's this year and it was from a hive I removed 2 days before and I haven't found any since.


http://www.ent.uga.edu/bees/index.html

[Michael Bush]

I assume leaving those frames out permanantly would only result in the bees filling a lot of those spaces and making it tight again, at least everywhere there is honey stored.  I had not heard of this method before now.

[Apis629]

I have only found and killed 2 beelte's this year

ONLY TWO?!  All the apiarys down here are swarming with them.  Everytime I open my hive about a dozen scurry out from under the cover.  Over at the Assn. Apiary the place is covered in beetles.  Every hive opened has over a dozen come out of each super.  I think the only reason my colonies haven't been overwelmed is because I keep them strong and us SBBs.

[downunder]

I assume leaving those frames out permanantly would only result in the bees filling a lot of those spaces and making it tight again, at least everywhere there is honey stored.  I had not heard of this method before now.

Yes, they will fill the gaps tightly. The technique of reducing hive humidity and making space in being researched as we speak. Hopefully we can come up with a program based on scientific proof.