In a few days, we plan to be at the Mississippi meeting in Tupelo. The Louisiana meeting in Covington follows quickly thereafter, and event organizers told me that this year’s meeting might turn out be their largest ever.
We haven’t kept track of all the states from which the Beetle Baffle has been purchased so far, but suffice it to say that word is getting out. I get mail and calls pretty frequently from folks who sell beekeeping supplies telling me that they are being asked where they can get our product. We haven’t been doing a lot of magazine ads thus far because trying to promote our product in a small ad is difficult—the Beetle Baffle is unlike other integrated pest management devices.
For the time being, our focus is on attending every event we can. We want beekeepers to put their hands on the product, ask questions about how it works, and learn about its installation, etc. Based on feedback from the meetings we’ve attended, we think it’s about time we produce some informative videos.
We have started stocking bottom boards from some of our friends like Rossman, Country Rubes, and Heartwood. Our objective is to provide popular bottom board arrangements that are fully assembled including the Beetle Baffle. We will continue to sell the 4-piece kit with and without the cypress adapter strips.
One of our key objectives is to provide practical beetle mitigation solutions that are viable options for beekeepers regardless of the size of their operation. Although many of the basic tenets of beekeeping apply in all cases, larger operators simply do things differently for many reasons. For example, we don’t often see large operators utilizing screened bottom boards, much less those with pan traps because of the cost and maintenance associated with them compared to the traditional reversible solid bottom board.
We have already seen that the Beetle Baffle added to a plain bottom board is very effective. The drawback of the arrangement is that, without a trap located below our barrier, some of the beetles driven from the floor of the bottom board during the day return at night. Although they cannot return to the combs, the bees spend time and energy running them out time after time. There is also a risk that beetles driven from one hive may eventually invade a nearby hive. The challenge of creating an external beetle trap that works with a solid bottom board is a tough one, especially if the objective is to make it a very low cost solution for the beekeeper.
We have produced some prototypes of what we think is an excellent solution. Here at our place we’ve been laughingly calling it’s trap things like “The Black Hole”, “The Beetle Bottle”, “Free Trap”, among others. It consists of a solid, reversible bottom board that is modified to raise it off the ground by an additional ¾”, a used 16 oz. aluminum beverage container, and a small piece of 8-mesh screen.
This arrangement probably doesn’t work very well without having the Beetle Baffle installed directly above it.
The directions are fairly simple:
From inside out, drill a 3/8” hole through the back wall of the bottom board approximately 1-1/4” to the left of the right rear corner. The bottom of the hole diameter should be very close to flush with the floor of the bottom board.
From the outside, staple a rectangle of 8-mesh screen over the hole as a bee excluder.
Modify the aluminum container cap (not plastic) by adding a 7/16”-1/2” hole off center of the cap. Drilling large diameter holes through thin aluminum is awkward.
I do that as follows:
You will need a hammer and ¼” drive, 7/16” thin wall deep socket (that you may eventually damage if you do this frequently). You will also need a thick, flat metal surface to use as an anvil plate.
Place the beverage cap so that the outside of the cap lies on the middle of the anvil plate.
With hammer in hand, place the tool end of the socket (not end with the ¼” square hole) over the exact location where the hole in the cap needs to be needs to be and strike it repeatedly with sharp, short strokes.
In doing this, you will feel the socket being driven through the plastic coating on the inside of cap and the aluminum below it. You can usually feel and hear when you’re done by a change in the sound of the impact. When you think you are done, flip the cap over and you will see either a nice round hole or a round ring that is where the hole will be and you simply need to provide a few more strikes. With a little practice, this process takes about 30 seconds.
Take the cap and place it over the screen patch so that the hole in the cap aligns centered over the hole through the bottom board and securely screw, nail, or staple the cap in place. Lightly lubricate the cap threads with Vaseline or other clear grease to prevent galling.
Place about ½ oz. of cooking oil in the bottle and screw it in place. (You might consider adding a Check Mite strip for added lethality.)
Project complete!
It is best to unscrew the bottle and place it aside when working your hive. Every time you take your bottle off is an opportunity of take a peek and see what’s inside.
The volume of the 16 oz. bottle is many times greater that some of the in hive traps. One of the larger in-hive traps can hold as many as 400 beetles. This trap arrangement can hold at least 1,600 or beetles.
I currently spray paint the exterior of the bottles white to keep the bottles from getting very hot (and avoid advertising for a beer company). It could be that making them dark might not be a bad thing. When we have compared light to dark over an entire season, we will post that information.
Putrid fumes from dead beetles or rancid oil should be noticed far less in the hive than those produced from a poorly maintained typical oil trap pan.
We are not selling this product, but thought some of you might want to give it a try. We have done no comparison testing to any other trap arrangements whatsoever, and we make no claims as to the performance of the arrangement described above.
The approach appears entirely sound and is based on bee/beetle behavior and interaction between the two in a hive equipped with the Beetle Baffle selective barrier.
This approach does not depend on the beetles being attracted to the external bottle trap. The primary reason the trap collects beetles is that, when being harassed by bees attempting to drive them out of the hive and into the bright sun, beetles are prone to move toward the back of the hive. When there they are unable to return to the top of the hive due to our selective barrier and cluster near the two rear corners. The 3/8” escape hatch and dark cavern of the trap is preferable to being badgered by the bees or the bright sun.
The diameter of the escape hole leading to the trap is intentionally large enough to allow a bee to drive beetles as far as the screen. If the bees should cover the hole or screen, it can easily remedied by removing the bottle and using a stiff wire to reopen the passage from outside the hive.
If you try this and have results to share, please do so.
Haynes
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