They do catch beetles and a less messy than beetle blasters and other products you put oil or something in. I don't put them in hives next to a queen excluder because of the propils problem, I always put them directly under the lid, either over a super or a single brood box. Yes weak hives will fail to chew up certain brands, the swiffer dry jet sheets are better than the brawny dine-a-max type in this regard as they are already fuzzy.
I don't think killing beetles matters a lot. There are always more from the environment. Keep the hive strong, keep it in full sun and if the beetle load is too much move it to some other location. I've got one site that even with sheets or beetle blasters and guardian entrances still had hundreds of beetles inside and thrived as long as the hive was strong. The hive weaken however and its a quick death.
I use the Brawny dine-a-max towels (available from amazon in bulk) as part of my IPM for shb. The problem I have with the towels is that the bees propolize the material to the top of the bars, which makes it more difficult to inspect - more cleanup. Also, if the colony is weak (low worker count), the bees seem to simply ignore the sheet. A little old, but some good info from Clemson is this link to ipm for control of shb: https://bee-health.extension.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/Handbook_of_Small_Hive_Beetle_IPM.pdf
They do catch beetles and a less messy than beetle blasters and other products you put oil or something in. I don't put them in hives next to a queen excluder because of the propils problem, I always put them directly under the lid, either over a super or a single brood box. Yes weak hives will fail to chew up certain brands, the swiffer dry jet sheets are better than the brawny dine-a-max type in this regard as they are already fuzzy.
I don't think killing beetles matters a lot. There are always more from the environment. Keep the hive strong, keep it in full sun and if the beetle load is too much move it to some other location. I've got one site that even with sheets or beetle blasters and guardian entrances still had hundreds of beetles inside and thrived as long as the hive was strong. The hive weaken however and its a quick death.
I use the Brawny dine-a-max towels (available from amazon in bulk) as part of my IPM for shb. The problem I have with the towels is that the bees propolize the material to the top of the bars, which makes it more difficult to inspect - more cleanup. Also, if the colony is weak (low worker count), the bees seem to simply ignore the sheet. A little old, but some good info from Clemson is this link to ipm for control of shb: https://bee-health.extension.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/Handbook_of_Small_Hive_Beetle_IPM.pdf