Thursday, June 25, 2009

clean the AJ Beetle Eater

AJ's Beetle Eater, bee, beekeeping, clean, hive, propolis, reuse, Small Hive Beetle,
















Yikes, after a few weeks, the AJ Beetle Eater is covered with propolis. I frequently rotate spare Beetle Eaters into the easily accessible top boxes, but I also want to clean and reuse the Beetle Eaters . FYI, I use two Beetle Eaters per box. Early attempts at cleaning the Beetle Eaters with soap and water were a disaster. Now, I use a cleaning scheme that works with a minimal amount of effort:
  • drain used AJ Beetle Eater components at room temperature
  • clean components with paper towel (no water)
  • freeze all the AJ Beetle Eater components
  • one component at a time, remove from freezer and chip away the propolis with a paint scrapper and dab up the vegetable oil with paper towel (no water)
So, the results are 95% clean as new Beetle Eaters and ready for re-use. The paint scraper is appropriately less sharp than a hive tool for chipping away the frozen propolis.

3 comments:

Linda T said...

I love how you are cleaning the AJs beetle eaters. I tried to copy your method of carrying them to the hive and now even more good info. Thanks and now that I know you have this blog, I'm putting a link on mine.

Leili said...

Hi,

I'm a first- year beekeeper and have searched the web trying to find a place to purchase the Beetle Eater. I see lots of blogs that talk about it, but no purchase information. Can you tell me where you got yours? Thanks,

Leili
Oakhurst, GA

Anonymous said...

I purchased the reusable AJ's Beetle Eaters many years ago from Brushy Mtn. Looks like the US based catalogs no longer sell them. Contact the manufacturer about a US distributor or buy direct - http://www.ajsbeetleeater.com.au