South African hive beetles, which are serious pests of commercial
honeybee (Apis) hives, invaded Australiain about 2002 and have
now spread to many areas of NSW and Queensland.
Fortunately, there has only been one confirmed case so far of
these beetle seriously damaging an Australian native stingless
bee hive and this may have already been dead before the infes-
tation occured. Are native stingless bees able to defend them-
selvesw in some way against this new exotic pest? The impact
of these beetles on stingless bees, Trigona carbonaria, was
examined. It was found that whilst adult hive beetles sometimes
managed to enter Trigona hives, the beetles were soondealt with
inside the hives. All the beetles that were found inside four
Trigona hives had been heavily glued down to the nest structure
with resin. The researchers also found that South African hive beetles are far less attracted to Trigona stingless bee hives than they are to
commercial honeybee hives. However,the impact of the beetles on
the Austroplebeia stingless bees is not yet known.
(Ed note: interestingly this is also a tactic extensively utilized by
African Apis mellifera in the homeland of the small hive beetle,
SHB, namely by A.m. scutellata and A.m. capensis. This is called
encapsulation, and is used when infestation reaches a certain
level. The beetle is guarded and forced to stay in an area until
encased/encapsuled in a type of prison made of propilis until
completed.)
Source: Aussie Bee #11, January 2006.