AN EFFECTIVE TRAP AND BAIT COMBINATION FOR MONITORING THE SMALL HIVE BEETLE, AETHINA TUMIDA (COLEOPTERA: NITIDULIDAE)

Abstract

The small hive beetle (SHB), Aethina tumida Murray (Coleoptera: Nitidulidae), is a pest of European honeybees Apis mellifera (L.) in the United States. Surveys in the US in 2004 indicated that the beetle had spread to 30 states (Hood 2004). The beetle is weakly attracted to bucket traps baited with a combination of honey, pollen and adult bees, but not to traps baited with honey and pollen, or brood alone (Elzen et al. 1999). The beetle is also attracted to bumblebee colonies, suggesting that these may serve as alternative hosts (Spiewok & Neumann 2006). This paper reports field tests of an effective trap and bait combination for monitoring flying SHB. The bait consisted of pollen dough (a mixture of pollen and honey) conditioned by allowing male SHB to feed on it for 3 d. Its attractiveness was