I have a hive that's been plagued with hive beetles. It's the strangest thing, the hive is real strong and in almost full sun. I've not seen any larvae, just adults on the underside of the lid. I mash 20-30 of them every time I pop the lid.
So, I took a couple of pieces of corrugated cardboard and laid it across the top bars, to see if the beetles would hide in it. Then I forgot about it, until today.
The bees had propolized every hole shut. I gently scraped them off today and broke them open, near a fire i had built to burn a limb that blowed down. Those thing were full of beetles, trapped in there by the bees. There must have been 50 or so. I went thru the hive and didn't see a single beetle. It'll be interesting to see if they come back, in the numbers I've seen. If they do, I'll try more cardboard. It sure seems to have worked this time.
