Protect Your Bees
Following one of my favorite beekeeping experts, Randy Oliver of Scientific Beekeeping we created a video demonstrating our experience one day checking drone brood.
I have seen a lot of discussions on hive beetles and many people identify hive beetles as a major concern. They go to extreme measures to combat hive beetles and spend lots of time, money and concern with these little pests. In our beekeeping experience we see hive beetles only as dangerous to a colony of bees as a tick is dangerous to the life of a person (leaving out diseases). (Please review the video below for more details.)
Watch the video and view the picture gallery below to better understand Lesser Wax Moths in Missouri. Jeff describes and show you the impacts of pests on weak or dying colonies. The lesser wax moth typically resides in milder climates, but can be prevalent in areas such as Florida because of the year-round warm climate. These moths live around 7 months, from egg to senile adult. They go through four stages in their life cycle – egg, larva (caterpillar), pupa and imago – like all holometabolous insects.
One of the most common pests in honey bee hives are sweet ants.
Most beekeepers see them under the cover and on top of the inner cover. Sometimes they are even under the tin on the cover. I have seen many beekeepers go a bit overboard trying to keep ants out of a hive. In our area of SW Missouri ants hold no threat to a colony of bees. Mostly they are just looking for a warm dry home and maybe an occasional bit of sweet food usually from the beekeeper. They do get into the hives on very weak hives but in most cases they are still not the problem or even a threat. The video below discusses the sweet ants in more detail and possible solutions like cinnamon.