I removed the window screen which was used to exclude small hive beetles (SHB) entering the top of the hive. As you can see, the bees propolized the screen which does not fit my winter ventilation plans. Another downside is that palmetto bugs resided unchallenged between the cover and inner cover. Compare the two pictures - the bottom hive side looks food safe while the top side has palmetto bug droppings - yuck.
The last clean-out of the beetlejail entrance trap was September 27th. Today, I found zero SHB in the oil or crawling on the pull-out drawer. I'll conclude that SHB are no longer flying. Beneath the inner cover I discovered a few SHB - oh well.
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