While everybody disagrees how to rid their hives of them or even disagree if they should rid their hives of them, people generally agree that Small Hive Beetles, Aethina tumida are a nuisance.
While generally believing (perhaps in vain) that genetic evolutionary development of behavioral resistance of the bees themselves is the only true long term solution to bee pests, this author does try different methods of dealing with pests if but for no other reason than to become better informed and so wishes to share personal experiences using BEETLE BEE-GONE sheets.
BEETLE BEE-GONE is a product packaged by the beekeeping equipment arm of BeeWeaver, BEEGOODS. It is used to reduce or keep the hive beetle population in check in a managed colony. The product is sheets of a fabric like material.
It doesn’t contain poisons or insecticides. that when placed in a hive the bees chew up into ball of material that has texture and consistency that the bees use to entangle the hive beetles. |
 |
| Photo #1 – BEETLE BEE-GONE |
|
The manufacture’s instructions are to place one or two of the approximately 6” x 5” sheets per fully populated brood chamber.
At times, upon insertion of the product, it has been observed that some bees immediately come in contact with the sheets and recognize it as something they can start chewing on.
After as little as 24 hours the material has been found to be thoroughly chewed and gathered into a ball and entangled beetles have been found either dead or struggling to free themselves. |
 |
| Photo #2 – A New BEETLE BEE-GONE sheet |
|
 |
| Photo #3 – BEETLE BEE-GONE Sheet with trapped hive beetles and Varroa mites |
A careful inspecton of Photo #3 reveals a pleasant surprise. It can be seen in that photo that Varroa mites are trapped in the material as well Small Hive Beetles.
While at times the old chewed up sheets crowded with dead beatles and mite have been replaced with new ones, more than not, due to the hygenic behavior of the bees they willwork to expell the entire wad out of the entrance of hive.
At times, the legs of the bees themselves have been observed to become entangled in the textured mass and those entangled bees die. However, the occurence of entangled bees is very very small. |
