• Honey bees – package bees and queen bees;
• Bumble bees;
• Honeycomb – also known as comb-honey;
• Unprocessed beeswax.

The legislation is in Article 36 of the EU Treaty.

I used to have a link here which would allow you to read the entire treaty but that link died and I’m damned if I can find another. However, you can quiz google as well as I can or the relevant portions are posted below.

Basically, Articles 34 and 35 tell you what member states can’t do. Article 36 tells you what they can do.

CHAPTER 3 – PROHIBITION OF QUANTITATIVE RESTRICTIONS BETWEEN MEMBER STATES

Article 34

Quantitative restrictions on imports and all measures having equivalent effect shall be prohibited between Member States.

Article 35

Quantitative restrictions on exports, and all measures having equivalent effect, shall be prohibited between Member States.

Article 36

The provisions of Articles 34 and 35 shall not preclude prohibitions or restrictions on imports, exports or goods in transit justified on grounds of public morality, public policy or public security; the protection of health and life of humans, animals or plants; the protection of national treasures possessing artistic, historic or archaeological value; or the protection of industrial and commercial property. Such prohibitions or restrictions shall not, however, constitute a means of arbitrary discrimination or a disguised restriction on trade between Member States.

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It seems that, with the exception of Portugal, whenever it has reached a new country it has managed to get itself well established before anybody notices it and once it is established there is no shifting it. Then we are looking at putting more pesticide strips into our hives and also ploughing up the surrounding soil and drenching it with chemicals which are currently illegal in Europe…

Surely the proactive thing is to ban all imports of bees before we get it because you know we can manage without Small Hive Beetle!

So get to know where your bees have come from.

Monitoring

Small hive beetles are easy to spot – apparently – running across the top bars of frames or scuttling across the floor so keep your eyes peeled. They will seek small spaces inaccessible to the bees so if you take a piece of corrugated plastic of cardboard and peel off one side then stick this – open face downwards – on the floorboard, you can make a simple beetle-harbour where beetles may seek refuge and be even more easily spotted.

As for the maggot – they can be mistaken for the larvae of greater wax moth but whereas wax moth larvae have 4 pairs of feeble little legs, the small hive beetle larvae have 3 pairs of more business-like legs and their bodies are equipped with several sets of spines. Also SHB larvae spin no webbing.

Infested honey has a wormy look to it and may be oozing slime.

Click here for more on the life cycle of Small Hive Beetle.

If you find small hive beetle, or think you have found small hive beetle – contact Ministry of Agriculture immediately.

Chemicals

Some chemicals are available but are highly toxic and not very effective. On top of that they are almost certainly illegal here.

There are strips rather like the strips we know and love for Varroa. Coumaphos is effective against the beetles and strips can be placed inside the hive but of course your honey will almost certainly be compromised and the beetles will eventually become immune. The strips have to be cut in half and placed into a beetle harbour made of corrugated cardboard as mentioned above

Also, the beetles complete their life cycle in the soil so that needs to be turned over up to 6 foot from the hives and drenched with yet more chemicals. Permethrin is used in America but it is also extremely toxic to bees so cannot be sprayed on – instead it has to be watered in using a watering can or similar.

If you don’t want to use chemicals – you can try your hand at trapping.

Trapping

In America various beetle traps are available – they mostly seem to consist of a reservoir of oil inside some sort of bee proof container with entrances for the beetles. Beetles will enter to seek refuge from the bees then fall into the oil and drown. Traps seem to catch a number of beetles but they will not eradicate the problem – they just help to keep the numbers down and may prevent a severe infestation.

Prevention is better than cure and good beekeeping practices are recommended.

Another wise method of prevention would be to ban the importation of bees – because that is how it will get here. Click here for more on that.

Good Beekeeping Practices

• As with Varroa – keep colonies strong and also keep the levels of mites low to alleviate stress on the bees;
• Weak colonies are vulnerable to attack so also keep a close eye on nucs and splits;
• Don’t leave scrapings of wax and comb unprocessed – render as quickly as possible;
• Don’t go flicking lumps of comb into the bushes either – it may attract SHB;
• Keep hives in good clean condition – beetles can hide in cracks and crevices and may even be able to complete the life cycle in the garbage of a really filthy hive floor;
• Keep a close guard on your honey house or wherever it is you do your extraction – stacks of supers are very attractive to beetles and they may lay eggs into them. Before or after extraction. If it’s before – there goes your honey harvest – it’ll be full of maggots and beetle slime;
• Look for bees with hygienic traits and breed from these.

Above all – NEVER – import bees!

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Small hive beetle (Aethena tumida) is originally from sub-Saharan Africa where it is an insignificant pest – an inconvenience. It occupies a scavenger role – a sort of insect vulture – picking off weak African honey bee colonies and polishing off the dead. African honey bees have evolved defence mechanisms against the beetle…

 Evolved Defence Mechanisms

African honeybees (Apis mellifera capensis) attempt to prevent beetle entry to colony but find it difficult to kill or eject them because of their shiny tough carapaces. They are unable to sting them so instead attempt to decapitate the beetles. Sometimes this tactic is successful but often the beetle responds – understandably – by tucking its head and legs in under the shell like a tortoise. Instead they have mastered the art of corralling the beetles in hive corners or crevices and propolising them in. This process can take a few days but during this time the bees guard the beetles and are able to keep them cornered until the propolising is complete.

In the meantime, the beetles are able to trick the bees into feeding them by stimulating the honeybee mouth-parts in the same way that drones do. Once the propolising is finished the beetles may be sealed in with full bellies after which they will cannibalise each other so it can be some time before the beetles die. If a beekeeper then comes along and opens the hive in the meantime he may also release the trapped beetles.

Other strong housekeeping instincts and behaviours cause the bees to be vigilant in the detection and removal of beetle larvae.

Features

Adult beetles are reddish brown to black in colour, oval in shape and  between 5-7 mm long and
3-4.5 mm wide with ‘club shaped’ antennae. Here is a picture from UK’s Bee Unit.

European Honeybee Effects

Outside Africa, however, and in association with the European honeybee sub species A.mellifera.mellifera, A.m.ligustica and A.m.carnica small hive beetle is a proven devastating horror.

Here’s what they get up to with European honeybees:

• Adult beetles invade honeybee colonies and lay between 1 and 2000 eggs each;
• Beetle eggs hatch and the maggots begin to graze their favourite foods – honeybee eggs and larvae;
• If they can’t find bee larvae, they eat honey and pollen; there may be as many as 30 maggots per cell;
• Their activities destroy combs and start fermentation of honey with much slime as a result; in severe infestations the bees will abscond;

• When the maggots are mature they enter the ‘wandering phase’; this involves gathering together in corners or on the hive floor;
• They can survive in this phase for up to 48 days without food or water after which they will creep out of the entrance en masse;
• They then need to pupate and may wriggle as far as 20 metres in search of a suitable soil in which to burrow the required 10cm down or more commonly will burrow close to your hives;
• The ideal temperature for pupation is between 10 and 17 degrees Centigrade. In perfect conditions mature beetles can emerge in as little as 8 days! In less optimum conditions pupation can take longer; on average they will emerge in 3-4 weeks;
• Adult beetles will then take to the wing and seek another honeybee colony. They can fly up to 20km attracted by honeybee pheromones and the cycle begins again.

Spread

Small hive beetle can be imported with package bees, queen bees, bumble bees, comb honey, untreated beeswax, beehives and hive parts.

Control Measures

• Small hive beetle can overwinter with the bees so it can survive wherever there are bees. It is already present as far north as Canada and in balmier places such as Jamaica, Mexico. And now – Italy.
• According to the UK’s Bee Unit – “Small hive beetle cannot be eradicated once established”
• In US, 20,000 colonies had to be destroyed in the first two years since its discovery in 1998.
• It can be controlled by improved husbandry, honey handling and equipment storage procedures and the use of fierce pesticides which are illegal in the EU.

Click here for more on the treatment/control of Small Hive Beetle.

Sources

UK Bee Unit Information document http://www.nationalbeeunit.com/downloadDocument.cfm?id=17

P. Neumann, C. W. W. Pirk,  H. R. Hepburn, A. J. Solbrig, F. L. W. Ratnieks, P. J. Elzen and J. R. Baxter. ‘Social encapsulation of beetle parasites by Cape honeybee colonies’ (Apis mellifera capensis Esch.) (2001)

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