06 July 2026, 17:15:34
Small Hive Beetle /Aethina tumida/
The name Small Hive Beetle somehow sounds reassuring and misleading, as if we were dealing with something insignificant. The name should be changed to Nightmare Hive Beetle in order to emphasize the nightmare consequences that its invasion can have for beekeeping, agriculture, food production, and our lives as a whole. And there is no reason why some pseudo-educated official should determine for me the price of a kilogram of honey or any other product I produce, decide what the overall cost of maintaining a beehive and a beekeeping operation should be, and then label me a “speculator.”
One does not need to be a pessimist to see that, on a global scale, beekeeping is heading toward collapse. It is enough to be a realist and not bury one’s head in the sand. This is not about conspiracy theories, but about a real danger that is pushing the world toward bankruptcy.
In short, the earliest information I have about the hive beetle in Europe dates from 2004. That was when it was first detected in Portugal. Its spread around the world began from South Africa, but there it is unable to cause major destructive damage to bee colonies because local African bees have effective defense mechanisms against it.
The beetles are about 5 mm long and around 3 mm wide. They are capable of flying independently. Within one year, they can spread approximately 20 km from the original outbreak. It is likely that the beetles entered Portugal through imported queen bees from the United States.
The only real barrier to their spread is the oceans.
Small hive beetles (SHB) are attracted by the smell of bees and bee products, as well as by other individual hive beetles.
A female SHB lays around 1,000 eggs during her lifetime, placing them in cracks in the hive, on the frames and combs, and inside the bee cells. The eggs are white and are laid in clusters resembling bunches of grapes.
The SHB can chew through the cappings of sealed brood and lay its eggs inside, filling the cell with them. The larvae hatch after about three days and begin feeding on honey, pollen, and brood.
After approximately 13 days, the larvae reach about 10 mm in length, leave the hive, and burrow into the soil to a depth of up to 80 cm and at a distance of up to 80 metres from the nest. In the soil, the larvae form pupae. Pupation lasts for 2–4 weeks. Adult beetles emerge from the pupae and begin searching for new bee colonies to infest.
The impact on bee colonies is devastating. Almost nothing usable remains. There is practically nothing left that can be used either by the bees or by humans.
Controlling SHB is practically impossible, or possible only at the cost of the total destruction of the colonies — burning them and digging up the soil to a depth of up to 1 metre and within a radius of around 80 metres from the apiary, accompanied by extensive insecticide treatment.
The situation is further complicated by the fact that SHB can also feed on other fruits, including melons, mangoes, and oranges. The pest can also infest colonies of bumblebees.
There is always a risk that bees may be imported into Europe from an unregistered outbreak area.
