vacuumed beetles

[rober]

these eetles were vacuumed from 3 hives yesterday. top boxes only. I only had 2 batteries with me & I ran out of juice 1/2 way thru the 3rd hive. the SHB are really bad at this location.


here's the vaccuum

[Jen]

Cool! get those turds!
We have a vac like this too, love it!

But really, you should vid this process of vaccing a hive for beetles, I can't imagine that. Well... actually I can, but it was very mean bees that I vaccumed up, and with no regrets!

[Wandering Man]

Time for some Beetle Soup:

Sauté onion, 5 minutes. Add garlic and ginger; cook, stirring often, 5 minutes. Add beetles and 4 cups stock; bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer until beetles are fork-tender, 20 minutes. With an immersion or regular blender, puree soup, adding remaining 1 cup stock as needed to reach desired consistency.

Yum!

[rober]

Beetle Brittle: in a cast iron skillet melt butter, add beetles, cinnamon, & honey. pour into a mold & allow to cool. healthier & non allergic alternative to peanut brittle.

[Wandering Man]

Beetle Brittle: in a cast iron skillet melt butter, add beetles, cinnamon, & honey. pour into a mold & allow to cool. healthier & non allergic alternative to peanut brittle.

Do you use the slime as an extra glaze?

[Jen]

Uuuuuuuuh Wman! That was funny until the slime.. I just lost my dinner over the side of the chair 

[rober]

ok-back to beekeeping. I have to add that this vacuum has become a go to tool for fighting beetles. this year I tried & found that:
beetle traps do help but results vary from hive to hive.
permethrin ground soaks helped but the effects were temporary & i'm afraid that repeated treatments will do environmental damage
spreading rock salt did not appear to help but did keep the weeds down. in a rural location salt would probably attract deer. once a salt supply has been depleted deer will paw at & dig up the ground to consume residual salt & could end up toppling hives.
all spreading wood ash did was make a big friggin' mess
diatomaceous earth did have some limited effect
I might try nematodes in the future 
for awhile i thought that a couple mild winters had temporarily increased beetle counts but i'm now leaning towards the idea that they are just getting more established in this area.

[Bakersdozen]

I tried nematodes last spring, rober.  It was costly and you have to reapply a couple of times a year.  I didn't see any significant reduction in beetles, if any at all. 

[rober]

baker-that's good to know.
5 years ago & beyond my hive tool was enough to crush the few beetles i'd see. now some hives, not all, have so many beetles that there is no way to get them all before they fly off or duck down into the frames so i have the vacuum running before i even crack open the hive. i also bring a bucket of bleach water. I've mentioned in previous posts that i use division board feeders & that when they are empty the beetles love to hide in them. i take those & dip an end into the bleach water, pick it up, & slosh the water around & dump that water beetles & all back into the bucket.