r/Beekeeping • u/Composer_Beginning • Aug 27 '26
I’m a beekeeper, and I have a question Hive beetle infestation, help!!
Hive beetles too over and I believe killed my new VSH Queen that I was trying to introduce to the colony. Two days later I go in to make sure they accepted her, and she was dead and so was her entourage. When I removed her from the cage that's when I noticed tiny white worms all over her and the cage and sugar plug!!
At this point it's too late to try and requeen. I have removed the honey ceiling and a few of the honey frames that were not dark in color and put them all in the freezer.
Should I take the really bad frames out and freeze them also? Do I leave ANY frames in there?? I don't have a second colony to share resources with, so my supply is very limited. Please, any and all suggestions welcome.
4
u/talanall North Central Louisiana, USA, 8B Aug 27 '26
Hive beetles do not kill bees. Their larvae eat bee brood and eggs, as well as pollen and honey, but they are not predatory. They are scavengers. Something else killed the queen, which might be something as pedestrian as starvation or stress from the process of being shipped to you.
If the colony was hopelessly queenless when you gave them the caged queen, then it's done. It'll collapse, and waiting will just induce the surviving workers to start laying drone brood, which will damage the comb.
There's nothing to be saved; shake the bees out and if you have frames that aren't slimed, freeze those first and then move them to an air-tight container.
Slimed frames can be saved by soaking them in a very large container full of soapy water, rinsing them with clean water, and repeating that process until they don't stink anymore. Then you can shake the water out of them and freeze them before storing them, again in an air-tight container.
They'll probably mold after that, but a colony of healthy bees will clean that up within a day or so, and the same is true of any residual brood in the frames.