Monday, February 16, 2009

Hive Beetle Trap

This gives you an idea of how the oil trap is accessed from the rear.
There were 7 small hive beetles in the oil after about 20 hours. Some pollen in there also.

This is how I access the hive trap from the rear of the beetle trap.


This is a photo of the beetle trap installed on my bee hives.



This shows a good overall view of the trap.





The cookie sheet slides out for easy access.




The door fits snugly into the opening and the latch is closed to secure the door.





Door is in and latch closed
















I recently built hive beetle traps for my hives. They are quite simple to construct. They are essentially the same outer dimensions of a Langstroth hive. I used 1 1/2 x 3 1/4 inch lumber to build the main frame, I then stapled #6 hardware cloth to the top. I have a shelf for the cookie sheet (10x15) and I have rear access to the cookie sheet that has used cooking oil in it. The results are amazing. I was told by an old bee keeper that this is all he uses for management of the hive beetles and that I would have a hard time maintaining my hives with hive beetles present. No chemicals needed. This is one of the most effective traps I have seen for small hive beetles. I took a video of my bees the other day and wanted to try this out on the blog, hope you enjoy this. Photo's of the hive beetle traps are soon to be posted.









Check out the little video of my bees.