Aethina tumida
Small Hive Beetle
The small hive beetle (SHB) is a native insect of South Africa which has greatly expanded its geographical distribution in recent years. The beetle is now present in all Hawaiian islands.
Arrival and detection
The small hive beetle (SHB) arrived to the Big Island of Hawaii in 2010. In November of the same year, colonies from Hawaii island were imported to central Oahu and the SHB began spreading on this island. Our team monitored the spread and arrival of the beetle to our apiary. Our data shows that in-hive wild traps were much more effective than visual screening of the honeycombs, at least under the very low initial beetle densities. The data also showed that a large proportion of colonies at the apiary need to be sampled to detect initial infestations (Villalobos et al., 2024).
SHB and microplastics
The efforts to control SHB populations are often based on in-hive traps that target adult beetles. Some of these traps utilize pesticides while others have oils to drown the beetles. Notably, one SHB trap is based on the use of microfiber sheets that are placed on top of the frames over the brood box. The bees attempt to remove the sheet, as they do with foreign objects, and by pulling at the fibers create a fuzzy surface in which beetles may get trapped. The towel method has been marketed as "non-chemical", however, our recent work, in collaboration with Dr. Micaela Buteler from CONICET Argentina, revealed that when the bees chew the cloth they rip small pieces and release plastic microfibers inside the hive. We found microfibers in bees' digestive tracts, as well as in the honey and wax of hives under treatment with these sheets (Buteler et al., 2023).
Monitoring SHB with traps
A large number of Hawaii's beekeepers use in-hive traps to control beetle populations. There is however, no known threshold for beetle density, and management is based on relative beetle abundance and quickly responding to beetle outbreaks. There is also conflicting information on where to place the traps to achieve best capture rates. Our team, in collaboration with Dr. Luis Medina Medina (Mexico) and Emanuel Miranda (Costa Rica) examined in-hive distribution of adult beetles inside hives across 3 countries (in preparation). In addition, our team has been examining the comparative success of traps placed on the bottom of the hive versus on top of the frames (current research).