Moving from Beetle Blasters to Beetle Jails:
Small Hive Beetle Management
Small hive beetles are a pest and a terrible nuisance, but as we learned oh so painfully, they can destroy a weakened hive if they become established and do as they are wont to do: reproduce prolifically. I’ve never had a sadder (or more disgusting) moment in beekeeping than dealing with that lost hive. As such, we are working to become better managers of varroa and small hive beetles, the jerks.
We’ve been using Beetle Blasters, which are disposable plastic trays that you place in between the frames on top of a brood box. You bait the blaster with a vegetable oil, and the small hive beetles will scurry inside either to hide from the chasing bees or because they like scurrying inside places or because they want to see what the smell of oil is all about. The small hive beetles become trapped and die, and you rejoice when you remove the trap.
We have used Beetle Blasters for the last year, and they do kill small hive beetles. Still, I don’t entirely like them for a few reasons. For starters, they’re disposable and not recyclable. My bleeding heart hates throwing away things that I think should be recyclable. Although they’re generally pretty cheap, you do have to replace them regularly because the oil goes rancid or you accidentally cracked one while trying to pry it up from the propolis-sealed frame. You can’t really remove the oil and the dead beetles, so it’s not reusable. Lastly, and this is where my own stupidity and human idiocy may come into play, I keep checking to see how many small hive beetles are in them so I can gloat over their demise… and accidentally pouring out oil onto myself, the ground, and the hive. You have to keep them level, or the oil spills out. When you have two beetle blasters on each of your brood boxes, and you’re inspecting the whole brood box, they get in the way and are difficult to set aside.
At my local beekeeping organization’s fun day, which is an informative day filled with presentations, workshops, and demonstrations, I attended a presentation on small hive beetles (as my inner monologue repeatedly chanted never again!). The presenter discussed using Beetle Jails with pollen as bait in a separate compartment and pickling lime as the killing agent instead of oil in the main compartment. This eliminates the problem of the oil going bad or spilling everywhere, and the jails are reusable. The beetles can never get to the pollen and instead are trapped and die.
Reusable?! No oil?! Dead small hive beetles?! Where do I sign?!
I purchased the jails in June, and they’re not that much more expensive than the blasters. They were about $3.75 compared to about $1.85 for the blasters. So, yes, they’re more expensive, but for $12, my hive should be solid on small hive beetle traps because they’re reusable. We’ll see how well they hold up to all the propolis! For various reasons, including delayed shipping, forgetting to buy the pickling lime, and a two-week not-a-vacation vacation in July, we finally put the jails in this week during our inspection of the hive. (It’s looking great, by the way!)
I’m optimistic that they’ll work just as well as the blasters do but be better than the blasters in the ways I don’t much care for the blasters: reusable, no oil, more level. In fact, the manufacture states you can set jails set down and have them remain level, should you be using oil in the traps.
If you have a favorite small hive beetle management tip, please share in the comments!
18 Comments
At a recent “bee” meeting the beekeeper presenter suggested using the paper fabric softener sheets laid in the bottom of the hive. The beatles get their legs tangled in the fibers and become trapped. Have not personally tried it so can’t speak from experience.
JimW
Jim, I’ve heard a similar suggestion too (using those swiffer dusters), but I haven’t tried it it.
Swiffer sheets work well, i use both the blasters and the sheets together.
Is there a link for the beetle jails?
I hope it’s kosher to share the link; I got mine from Brushy Mountain Bee Company. And to be on the safe/transparent side, I am in no way affiliated with them; nor did they pay me to write about their beetle blasters. 🙂 http://www.brushymountainbeefarm.com/Baitable-Beetle-Jail
Tried the dryer sheets. Absolutely no luck. Actually saw a beetle start laughin at me!
You wouldn’t be the first person a small hive beetle has laughed at. Thanks for sharing your experience!
You wouldn’t be the first person to have been laughed at by a small hive beetle! Thanks for sharing your experience.
I have used a solid stream nozzle on a garden hose to clean out the beetle blasters for re-use. It works well.
Thanks for the tip! I’m still not a fan of the oil since I’ve spilled it more than I should’ve, but that’s a good strategy for reuse.
try wiffer non scented replacement mop heads. They are placed on the inside bottom of the hive. Little more difficult to place but trap ALLOT of beetles. I check/remove every month. Also, Your opinion please: Do you think applying beetle insecticide 1 ft radius around ground around hive then cover with plastic gardening film so the bees cant get to insecticide. I’ve always been told that the beetles come from the ground and “hibernate” coming out in the spring.
The beetles do come from the ground, but I was SHOCKED by how far a small hive beetle larva will crawl to find ground to hibernate in. I think it was nearly a quarter mile, but I honestly don’t remember. Similarly, the adult beetles can smell the hive / pollen / honey and can travel far distances to do so (miles?). A flock of chickens, though, would devour all those larvae exiting the hive, and having a strong hive is the best protection. My understanding is that SHB are secondary pests that move in / become established or problematic once a hive is weakened. I think traps are great for helping the bees corral the SHB, but i don’t think your insecticide / plastic covering would prevent SHB from finding your hive or the larvae from finding ground. You could, though, look into beneficial nematodes. I haven’t read much about them, but it’s something I’ll be exploring more in the coming year.
I use the beetle blasters but use Diatomaceous Earth inside. It dries the beetles out and works a wonder.
You can then just shake and tip it all in the bin and fill up again
I love this tip to use diatomaceous earth instead of oil! Thanks for sharing.
I’ve used the dry non-scented Swiffer pads for 2 years now. I put them on the top super and they work pretty good. I’ve had the best results with the Freeman beetle traps, though.
Thanks for sharing your successes!
Don’t use oil. It’s just that simple. The beetles can’t find the way out, even though they crawl all over the inside. The first time I didn’t use oil, and trapped more than ten inside all scurried around like they wanted out. Sadly, I took pleasure in crushing each and every single one. Only found two on the second day inspection and none by the third day. My hopes are definitely up but I’m aware that things will change, seemingly overnight at that, which is the only thing we can depend on.
I’m just learning about bees and hope to have hives someday. What I do know a lot about is toxins. I was sent home to die in ’04. They gave me 2 mo to 2 years to live. Turns out I had severe pesticide poisoning. OP insecticide. Every toxin after that made it worse. Only treatment, avoidance. Had to study my brains out to know what to avoid to survive.
Dryer sheets and swiffers contai petroleum by-products and toxic (to your bees too) substances. Pesticides placed under plastic volatize out more toxic at some point. Those things contribute to weakening your hive. I liked the “jail” and the DE idea.
Here in South East, coastal South Carolina, we had a serious beetle problem last spring and summer. I lost 2 hives.. The worst part is, there’s nothing you can do, once the bees give up. I tried, Blasters, The reusable traps that function like the blasters and finally the hotel type with Crisco and Boric Acid, but the little bastards still won… Disgusting, I don’t want to see that ever again. I pressured washed everything…Yuk !! I treated the ground beneath the hives and lightly sprayed everything.. Getting ready for this year. 2020 was a bad year all around…