Beetle Banisher

[Bakersdozen]

http://www.ozarksfirst.com/ozarks-live-at-4/features/one-million-cups-superior-hive-solutions-21318/974150720
This is a 5 minute interview of two inventors that came up with a different solution for the small hive beetle problem. They call in the beetle banisher.

[Wandering Man]

Oops great. I’m a sucker for new beetle bashing equipment. Their website does not give any info on purchasing their product.

[apisbees]

Make your own. Cut to size, 10 covers per sheet. Heat in a oven about 275 deg. F. clamp in mold and vacuum the air out to form it into the mold. need a good vacuum pump, a shop vac will not work.
or Cut it flush and square, silicon it on top of a wood frame and place it on top. this way you could get 12 covers per sheet. I wonder it the Plexi would give a green house effect and melt the wax or cook the bees out of the hive.

http://www.eplastics.com/plexiglass-acrylic-sheet-transparent-colors

Gloss
Transparent
0.125" x 48" x 96" 2423 red plexiglass acrylic sheet paper masked

Plexiglass Sheets Colored Transparent
Transparent acrylic is a versatile plastic material that has great impact strength while maintaining its light weight. Transparent colors offer light transmission through the material enabling it to act as a colored or tinted window. This acrylic (also known as transparent plexiglass) is very easy to work with for projects that require fabrication.

The ePlastics® online store offers up a wide array of transparent colored plexiglass sheets. Standard tinted colors include bronze and gray solar control shades, red, green, yellow, amber, and blue. Transparent colored acrylic is tinted, meaning you can see completely through like sunglasses or tinted windows in automobiles. If you are not sure which color to use in your application, you can compare the differences with our samples shown here.

We cut to size all acrylic sheets we sell, which saves on shipping costs since it offers a more economical means of packaging. The chart below shows standard sizing increments and conversions for acrylic sheets.

Quantity
Price each
1 – 2     $134.09
3 – 9    $117.02
10 – 19   $103.62
20 – 29   $98.13
30 – 49   $92.64
50 +    $83.50

[Wandering Man]

I wonder it the Plexi would give a green house effect and melt the wax or cook the bees out of the hive.

Their website FAQs page claims that they have not noticed any problems with overheating.

Looking for Red Plastic on Amazon, and I realized one has to be careful about the amount of opacity.  4% looks like not enough, when comparing with pics on the website.  On the other hand, it makes me wonder if that degree of opacity would be better in terms of greenhouse effect.

In any event, it would appear that the cost of the lids is going to be high.  They have a Facebook page, and mention that they are looking overseas for a manufacturer so they can bring the price down.  Apparently it is not on the market just yet.

[rober]

i tried using their contact link but it does not go thru. could the plastic just be mounted on a wood frame like the outer rim of an outer cover?
grant gillard is a well respected local beekeeper.
https://beetlebanisher.com/

[Wandering Man]

The plastic is expensive, but it looks like you could do that, Rober.

[rober]

that's true but we do not know what these covers will sell for yet. then again we could just wait awhile for the Chinese to knock them off...........that was a joke, even though it's probably true.

[rober]

I just heard from Michael at beetle banisher. he says they are working out the kinks of overseas production. due to the interest in this they might make a limited U.S. produced run that would sell somewhere in the $65.00 range. he says he'll keep me posted.