This past season has seen a large increase in the numbers of Small hive beetle (Shb) observed within beehives in many areas. There have been many reports of Shb forcing colonies to abscond and the hives taken over and slimed out. This has particularly been the case in the coastal regions and especially where flooding events earlier this year caused the demise of many bee colonies. Quite a few of those flooded colonies were lost and bred up a lot of Shb. 

Unfortunately Shb is here to stay and they will be worse in some years (wet