Small hive beetle in mainland Europe.

[midnight sun]

There was a program on BBC2 recently if memory serves, where it showed a Scottish keeper who regularly imports many packages from Europe ( I think it was Italy).
Hope he is on the ball with this one!

 

[Michael Palmer]

We've had SHB here for years. Depending on your local climate, they can be devastating or a non-issue. If you have a true winter, with cold and snow and frozen ground, they won't be a problem. They pupate in the ground around the hives, and don't do well in heavy clay soils. Light sandy soils are best for them.

I've seen beetles fairly often in my apiaries, but they don't over-winter well here in Vermont. They are gone by spring, but are re-introduced by the importation of bees from the south...packages and nucs.

One place where they can become a real problem is in the hot room during extracting season. Once you get the honey off the bees, extract it right away. Don't leave your full supers in a hot room or any warm place for an extended period of time.

I don't see SHB becoming a serious issue in the northern UK, but perhaps an issue in the southwest.

 

[alanf]

From comments at Gormanstown, I was under the impression that SHB had been reported in Portugal some time ago and that it had gone completely under the beekeeping radar.....

According to the NBA website, in 2004 sh beetles were seen in Portugal with a batch of queens imported from Texas. The whole consignment was destroyed and there were no further reports. The difference here is that they were trapped in the wild near a port, a high risk area but not directly as part of an import inspection. We don't know how many are out and about around the port yet, they may have been breeding for months, even years.

What it could mean is that EU imports to the UK are subject to as much inspection as those from outside. The flat bed driven by Murray from Italy in 2013 (Penguins on a Plane - still on iplayer) with a few hundred packages will be forbidden. Actually very hard to enforce in practice, there are quite a few "informal" bee imports from Europe.The alternative is the situation we have with Ash where years of imports with fungal infection spread the disease throughout the country before anyone did anything about restricting imports. And even if we could restrict bees, it's not the whole story because the ground stage could travel in pot plants. Have you seen the number of imported plants shipped to branches of major supermarkets nationwide?

 

[The Drone Ranger]

We've had SHB here for years. Depending on your local climate, they can be devastating or a non-issue. If you have a true winter, with cold and snow and frozen ground, they won't be a problem. They pupate in the ground around the hives, and don't do well in heavy clay soils. Light sandy soils are best for them.

I've seen beetles fairly often in my apiaries, but they don't over-winter well here in Vermont. They are gone by spring, but are re-introduced by the importation of bees from the south...packages and nucs.

One place where they can become a real problem is in the hot room during extracting season. Once you get the honey off the bees, extract it right away. Don't leave your full supers in a hot room or any warm place for an extended period of time.

I don't see SHB becoming a serious issue in the northern UK, but perhaps an issue in the southwest.

Hi Michael.
Would some chickens scratching around sort the problem ?

 

[Hachi]

Expect a lot will just give up beekeeping when this little pest takes hold, just like they did when varroa first arrived, be interesting to see how it effects the do nothing beekeepers.

This is the problem HM, bad husbandry and those who prefer a "more natural" approach to beekeeping will secure its future.

 

[pargyle]

This is the problem HM, bad husbandry and those who prefer a "more natural" approach to beekeeping will secure its future.

Sorry Hachi ... typical opinion from someone who clearly knows little about keeping bees without dowsing them in chemicals .. I (and many others) take a very light touch to their beekeeping - it does not mean we are 'leave alone' beekeepers or in some way devoid of knowledge.

Indeed, it takes a lot more effort to deal with varroa without varroacides than it does to follow the conventional route.

The people we have to worry about are those people who import foreign bees without any concerns for the health of the bees they are handling and those beekeepers who really are 'Leave alone' beekeepers - who are either just in it for a quick buck of honey or those who get a few hives and then get fed up and just leave them to rot ... we've seen a classic example of that in a thread on here just this week.

Please don't take this as an attack ... just be a little less general in your comments ...

And .. if you want to see healthy bees that are untreated then you are welcome to come and look at mine ...

 

[boca]

In my opinion, once we have too deal with the bug, a mechanical barrier will be found. I consider European beekeepers a lot more creative than the americans.

 

[rolande]

In my opinion, once we have too deal with the bug, a mechanical barrier will be found. I consider European beekeepers a lot more creative than the americans.

That's excellent news.

 

[dpearce4]

Sorry Hachi ... typical opinion from someone who clearly knows little about keeping bees without dowsing them in chemicals .. I (and many others) take a very light touch to their beekeeping - it does not mean we are 'leave alone' beekeepers or in some way devoid of knowledge.

Indeed, it takes a lot more effort to deal with varroa without varroacides than it does to follow the conventional route.

The people we have to worry about are those people who import foreign bees without any concerns for the health of the bees they are handling and those beekeepers who really are 'Leave alone' beekeepers - who are either just in it for a quick buck of honey or those who get a few hives and then get fed up and just leave them to rot ... we've seen a classic example of that in a thread on here just this week.

Please don't take this as an attack ... just be a little less general in your comments ...

And .. if you want to see healthy bees that are untreated then you are welcome to come and look at mine ...

Whats that, not sure any bee farmer would know what a quick buck is.

 

[pargyle]

Whats that, not sure any bee farmer would know what a quick buck is.

There have been plenty on here in the past ... and a few newbies as well ... none of them last long and generally end up in the other category !!

I wasn't talking about those beekeepers who have been around for some time and I share your view that making anything out of beekeeping is not easy ... more those that see 100 lbs of honey a hive as an easy £500 ... without realising what is involved ...

 

[The Drone Ranger]

There was a program on BBC2 recently if memory serves, where it showed a Scottish keeper who regularly imports many packages from Europe ( I think it was Italy).
Hope he is on the ball with this one!

Penguins on a Plane is the program its still on the BBC iPlayer

 

[Hachi]

Sorry Hachi ... typical opinion from someone who clearly knows little about keeping bees without dowsing them in chemicals .. I (and many others) take a very light touch to their beekeeping - it does not mean we are 'leave alone' beekeepers or in some way devoid of knowledge.

Indeed, it takes a lot more effort to deal with varroa without varroacides than it does to follow the conventional route.

The people we have to worry about are those people who import foreign bees without any concerns for the health of the bees they are handling and those beekeepers who really are 'Leave alone' beekeepers - who are either just in it for a quick buck of honey or those who get a few hives and then get fed up and just leave them to rot ... we've seen a classic example of that in a thread on here just this week.

Please don't take this as an attack ... just be a little less general in your comments ...

And .. if you want to see healthy bees that are untreated then you are welcome to come and look at mine ...

Hi P

Understood its not an attack. I trust you'll acknowledge I write in an equally non aggressive tone?

I picked my words carefully when using "natural" I wasn't referring to light touch. I was referring to those I have met (Many in my locality) who treat varroa with a concoction of alloa vera and seaweed and others who use homeopathic tinctures and wonder why their hives die out. I was also identifying with those I also have first hand experience of who do nothing to address anything in their hives when there was clearly a problem which got me thinking, do their methods of bee keeping mean they feel there is no need to beware of or have the capability to identify disease? Maybe I'll ask one day. This instance was BPV which resulted in at least another hive lost.

That said, I do feel you have fallen fowl of your own comments "typical of someone whose dowses with chemicals" is a strong generalisation of me and other beeks who use the application of chemicals appropriately and proportionately in the control of parasites and diseases that impact on the health and survivability of our bees. FWIW I think I am pretty much light touch but as I use chemicals and you classify it as dowsing I guess we'll agree to disagree on this one

I'd love to come and see your bee's, I find such visits worthwhile and you get to make friends along the way. I also would like to extend the same invitation to you. I'd be delighted to show you my hives.

H

 

[Grub]

does the beetle just effect honey bees or are bumble bees under threat as well ?

Grub

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

I went to the Kim Flottum talk in the National Convention last year and his comment was that it's bound to come here one day, but looking at our track record with varroa the Britihs beekeeper would take it all in his/her stride and have no problem living with it.

 

[Hivemaker.]

I went to the Kim Flottum talk in the National Convention last year and his comment was that it's bound to come here one day, but looking at our track record with varroa the Britihs beekeeper would take it all in his/her stride and have no problem living with it.

The sooner it gets here the better, then we can get used to dealing with it, and stop worrying about when or how it will arrive.

 

[Michael Palmer]

Careful what you wish for Pete. If they are compatible with your Somerset climate, those little mating nucs you showed me will be devastated. I don't expect it will be so, but I don't really know. Just another issue you don't need in your mating yards.

 

[Tim1606]

Having read the NBU contingency plan, which says that they will destroy apiaries that have SHB, i wonder how many people have read this and realise the seriousness of this. Could be devastating to some people and there will be the usual ones who don't give a damn.

 

[Hivemaker.]

Having read the NBU contingency plan, which says that they will destroy apiaries that have SHB, i wonder how many people have read this and realise the seriousness of this. Could be devastating to some people and there will be the usual ones who don't give a damn.

Perhaps Italy has similar rules, and that is why rumour has it that SHB could of been there for up to a year already and spread far and wide, beekeepers keeping it to themselves, they would not be likely to destroy every hive of bees in Italy...or the whole of Europe.

 

[itma]

Having read the NBU contingency plan, which says that they will destroy apiaries that have SHB, i wonder how many people have read this and realise the seriousness of this. Could be devastating to some people and there will be the usual ones who don't give a damn.

I found this PDF
https://secure.fera.defra.gov.uk/beebase/downloadDocument.cfm?id=718
and the key passage seems to be this quote (my emphasis in bold)

If the SHB is found, what happens first?

Assessing the Extent of
Infestation
In the first instance, a statutory infected area (SIA) will be declared. The SIA is a zone of radius 16 km around the original SHB incursion site. This might be an apiary but could also be any other entry point for the SHB, such as a freight depot that imports fruit. The size of this initial SIA reflects what we know about the SHB’s ability to disperse and can be altered and enlarged rapidly should circumstances change. Movement restrictions will be placed on all apiaries within the designated SIA, effectively restricting removal of colonies, queen bees, used beekeeping equipment, hive debris, all unprocessed hive products, including honey and raw beeswax, or any other thing which is liable to spread any life stage (egg, larva or adult) of the SHB within, into, or out of the infected area. These restrictions would take immediate effect and remain in force while the NBU completes emergency apiary searches.

What Happens Next?
Emergency searches of apiaries around the first find would be completed very quickly and, depending on our findings, decisions would be made as to how to proceed.
The first priority would always aim to stamp out the SHB as quickly as possible. However, under some circumstances, depending on the number and geographical spread of the outbreaks, it would be necessary for an eradication strategy, aimed at completely eliminating all SHB from England and Wales, to be replaced by a containment strategy, designed to contain pest spread and limit damage.

Eradication
The key elements of eradication are destruction of affected apiaries and all contaminated equipment, stringent surveillance and movement restrictions in the SIA, as described above.
Pesticides may be available (subject to confirmation from the Chemicals Regulation Directorate) but the use of these would also require specifically trained personnel and they cannot be applied by the beekeepers.

Containment
Containment strategies …

 

[BeeJayBee]

does the beetle just effect honey bees or are bumble bees under threat as well ?

Yes, according to the cabi datasheet http://www.cabi.org/isc/datasheet/109537 bumble bees appear to be at risk.

This datasheet is about small hive beetle infestation as defined by the World Organisation for Animal Health, or OIE (OIE, 2012), i.e. an infestation of bee colonies by the beetle Aethina tumida, which is a free-living predator and scavenger affecting populations of the honey bee, Apis mellifera. Bumble bee, Bombus terrestris, colonies can also be parasitized under experimental conditions, and infestation has also been reported in commercial B. impatiens colonies. Although infestation has not been observed in wild Bombus spp. populations they should be considered susceptible.

Adding to what itma has said, NBU has updated with a "SHB Q&A September 2014" https://secure.fera.defra.gov.uk/beebase/downloadNews.cfm?id=125