In past experiments using the cedar oil pest spray in bee hives to protect from pests like small hive beetle and perhaps even Varroa mites, wax moths, etc I am going to apply the spray differently than in the past.
In the past, the spray was applied to the bottom boards of the hives hoping to prevent shb from coming in to begin with.
The bees didn't seem to bee bothered by it and there seemed to be considerably less shb in hives with bottom boards sprayed than those not treated. However, it didn't seem to be enough for complete prevention. Also, testing wasn't done consistently enough to determine impact on Varroa mite populations.
The bottom boards and the inside of the top boards were sprayed in some hives but that seemed to be too much of the scent for the bees and they tended to swarm more or outright abscond. Too much.
This year, using smaller (3'8") entrances on the hives year round to allow for better guarding of the entrance, quilt boxes will be put on year round with wood shavings sprayed with cedar oil pest spray.
Bees seem to chase most shb to the top of a hive, this will essentially (hopefully) herd the shb right into the bottoms of the quilt boxes and into contact with the sprayed wood shavings above them, theoretically killing them in few moments after staying at the top of the hive and minimizing the number of live shb in the hive overall.
The cedar oil spray responds to moisture by absorbing it, thus, theoretically, the wood shavings with cedar oil spray on them should keep more humidity/condensation out of the hive
The sprayed wood shaving will be refreshed on a monthly basis.
Because of the very high levels of natural Cedrol in this spray as compared to what is typically found in cedar wood building materials, the effect of the sprayed wood shavings should have a much higher and beneficial impact over regular cedar chips or shavings used in the quilt box.
The goal is to compare two hives with sprayed wood shavings with two hives not using sprayed wood shavings over the period of this season (May 1) and through the winter to May. 1 of 2015.
