![]() I have now made up another box with the front access meshed over. So far it has been very successful and the bees can still navigate it OK. A new piece of mesh was drilled out with the 3/32” drill and fitted to the hive. A rethink of the hole sizes was required and I decided to try a 3/32 inch drill (2.38 mm or 0.0937”). Then one afternoon I caught and killed a tiny hive beetle that was only 2.4 mm (0.0944”) wide. #Opensprinkler bee fullThey could pass through with their tiny saddlebags full of resin or pollen. (When I attempted to drill out every hole it would break through into the adjacent hole and I would end up with a 5.0 mm slot which would allow a beetle to easily get in.) I installed my excluder across the entrance and it seemed to work well. I had some other mesh with 2.0 mm holes in it so I drilled out every second hole to 2.5 mm. I measured some dead bees and beetles and decided to try 2.5 mm (0.0984”) diameter holes. I then started to think about what size mesh a bee could pass through and yet exclude a beetle. The beetles congregated on the outside of the door mesh and were easy to squash. Any bees left outside just camped locally overnight.This worked well. I shut the door around 4.15 pm and opened it again the next morning. This was to provide extra ventilation but I now don’t think that is necessary. You will notice on the left hand inside of the oven I have cut away the solid metal (with a 100 mm angle grinder) and pop riveted in another piece of door mesh. There were also a few ventilation sections (3.0 mm diameter holes) at the rear and top of the oven cavity that I covered with the fine mesh. I cleaned off any residual adhesive with mineral turps. On the cavity side of the mesh (the inside) there was also a clear soft plastic film which needed to be removed to allow ventilation.By picking at its edges, I could get a grip on it and peel it off slowly. So after an inspirational thought, I decided to put the whole box into an old microwave oven, from which I had removed the front plastic covering to expose the mesh. I would remove this mesh the next morning to allow the bees out to forage.Ĭontrolling the Beetles Using an Old Microwave OvenĪll of this screwing and unscrewing mesh became a bit trying. I obtained this mesh from the front door of a scrapped microwave oven. To prevent re-infestation while I was sleeping, I sealed the front entrance with some very fine steel mesh (1.5 mm holes). I killed 28 on the first night after the initial clean out. The beetles started swarming in around 4.30 pm and continued to arrive until well after dark. There was a very large amount of bees in this hive so I thought it had a good chance of recovering if I could only stop the beetles reinfesting it. As you scooped up a handful with your fingertips they felt very hot high metabolic rate, I suppose.Įvery second day I opened the box and completed a ritual clean out. ![]() He boxed one hive and the next morning it had about 30 hive beetles in it. Tom Carter in Rockhampton, Queensland, said he has had a similar experience. (Don’t miss our bonus video with graphic footage of this infestation!) ![]() There was nothing left of the brood comb that I had so carefully transferred across.Ī mass of Small Hive Beetle larvae in Ric’s stingless bee hive. Within ten days after transferring the nest to the new box, I was disgusted to find that it was completely infested with Small Hive Beetle larvae. Then I brought the new hive home.Ī Small Hive Beetle Attack Causes a Huge Clean Up Job I left it beside the open sprinkler housing for two days so the bees could clean up. ![]() I made up a box for it and carefully moved the brood, pollen and honey pots into the box. Recently a friend asked if I would like to remove a Trigona nest that was in an underground sprinkler valve casing at a local nursing home. Here is Ric Wade’s story:Ī Hive Rescued from a Sprinkler Valve Casing ![]() However, Ric managed to save his bees through some very dedicated hard work and by engineering a precise beetle-excluding mesh for his hive. The bees had suffered a massive attack from the South African Small Hive Beetle, a serious hive pest that was introduced into Australia in 2002. Ric Wade fought to save a nest of stingless bees (Trigona carbonaria) which he had recently transferred to a box. ![]()
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