Can anyone identify

[grizzly]

Hi All

Does anyone out there know what these are from ? they look like mouse poo, but they arent, they were smaller than that, but i have no idea what.

???

 

[rae]

Ratty. They look bigger than mouse poo (small grain of rice sized) and much broader. Hard to see the scale from the photos, need a ruler in the pic.

 

[oliver90owner]

I'll go with Rae. Looks like rat to me, too.

Regards, RAB

 

[Frisbee]

I understood from the OP that the pieces were smaller than mouse poo :-

they look like mouse poo, but they arent, they were smaller than that, but i have no idea what.

Rat poo of course is much bigger, but it's also smooth and pointy both ends, non of which these are. Looking at the sugar crystals it's smaller than mouse also the wrong shape for mouse. But I have no idea what it is. Unless it's dead and blackened half grown bee lavae.

They seem to be chucking a lot of stuff out at the moment......spring cleaning I believe it's called (not that I would know anything about that )

Frisbee

 

[Cazza]

Are you sure it's rat? Rat poo in Suffolk usually has more pointy ends! Looks more mousey.
Cazza

 

[Hivemaker.]

Not easy to see from those pic's, but i think i would go with chilled brood.

 

[Brosville]

I'd go with mouse too (there's several different sorts of mouse) - rat poo is loads larger! (a rat's would be 3-4mm round by 1cm or thereabouts) 1/8" by 3/8" in English!

 

[MJBee]

Not much help Grizzly, but I have seen these they are about 2mm x 1mm and I haven't a clue what beastie produces them. It has been suggested that they could be wax moth poo but I have seen them in colonies that are definitely wax moth free. Anyone else got any ideas?

PS Def not rodent large or small.

 

[Somerford]

do they smell mouse poo ish ?

S

 

[fatshark]

The look like caterpillar poo of some form to me ... so my money would be on wax moth larvae (although I note you've seen them in wax moth-free colonies). Have a look at the second picture down on the right hand side of this page.

D.

 

[BKF Admin]

Field mouse poo ?

 

[grizzly]

They are most definitely not from rodent, unless we have some pygmy species.

I should have given some idea on sizing, were talking mm, 3-4mm length perhaps 1.5 width.

Some of them looked like the back end of a ladybird larva !! i will open up the hive tomorrow to see what i can see, and perhaps find the culprit/s.

Chilled Brood would explain why they are not smooth but i have not seen any that small before, again that could just be because i dont normally have the correx sheet under the OMF at this time of year.

 

[Stiffy]

The droppings look knobbly and in sections but it is very difficult to gauge scale.
I know this sounds disgusting but please pick one up a rub it and see if it crumbles stays hard or is a sticky mess?

Is the hive occupied or have free areas where a very small rodent sized animal may crawl in between frames and remain relativly undisturbed?

 

[grizzly]

MJBee and Fatshark were correct.

I opened a hive today after spotting those droppings again on the removable floor, and found some wax moth larvae on an outside frame, which i removed.

So next time i see anything like this i know the hive has some unwanted additional occupants.

 

[ryan_220]

mouse poo

 

[Rosti]

Visuals insufficient to identify, would you mind tasting it and posting the flavour? I am sure that would help considerably!