Diatomaceous Earth

I have just replied to an e mail from Australia who are being inundated with SHB.
They have designed a trap to go into the hive, made of black plastic in two parts, hinged to click together. Inside is placed a quantity of Diatomaceous Earth which effectively kills the beetles after they crawl inside.
As a gardener I know this substance, used as an insect killer. It's a fine powder which when viewed under a microscope shows lots of sharp particles. These penetrate the joints of the insect, which then dehydrates and dies.
I would suggest this might be a replacement for the FGMO in the current SHB trap design on this thread.
Comments anyone?

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David Eyre,
Forum owner.

I believe you should try it out on a few experimental hives to see just how effective it might actually be.

Never really know unless you give it a solid chance to see if it really works or causes other problems within the hive.

If you never experiment and try different things you will never move forward in this battle, weather it be against mites or beetles.

Regards,

Bill

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http://www.performingrollers.org/

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Some of the beekeepers in our club have been experimenting with this on the inner cover and blocked off so the bees can't get in but the beetles do. Problem here is that the humidity builds up quickly and can cause caking in realatively short time. My neighbor uses it in the yard for flea control and it seems to work real well for her.