Disaster

[thorn]

We took five supers off two weeks ago, and stored them in polythene sacks in my bee buddy's house. We came to start extracting today, to find that a wax moth had got in, and its larvae were infesting frames in four of the supers. Should we junk the lot, junk the infested frames or just cut the infested areas out?

 

[enrico]

You can scrape it back to the foundation and melt the scrapings down. Or use a steam melter to at least recover the wax so you can swap it for foundation. Keep the frames. They are fine
E

 

[thorn]

You can scrape it back to the foundation and melt the scrapings down. Or use a steam melter to at least recover the wax so you can swap it for foundation. Keep the frames. They are fine
E

But what about the honey in the clean areas? Can I take it to sell?

 

[Eyeman]

But what about the honey in the clean areas? Can I take it to sell?

Yes
I often get small patches of wax webs in the pollen areas of the supers. I just fork it our with one of those uncapping forks. You'll find the larvae poop which can usually be just wiped off.
Had to throw out 4 honey supers combs this year because of extensive wax moth damage like you before they were extracted- took my eye off the ball. I normally extract as soon as the supers come off. Use B401 routinely after extraction so no problems with stored supers.

 

[beeno]

We took five supers off two weeks ago, and stored them in polythene sacks in my bee buddy's house. We came to start extracting today, to find that a wax moth had got in, and its larvae were infesting frames in four of the supers. Should we junk the lot, junk the infested frames or just cut the infested areas out?

I am sorry to say, bad beekeeping practice and you got punished. I wish the wax moth-does not go-in the supers-brigade would shut up, so that beeks that know better does not take a chance.

 

[thorn]

I am sorry to say, bad beekeeping practice and you got punished. I wish the wax moth-does not go-in the supers-brigade would shut up, so that beeks that know better does not take a chance.

Indeed. The first article I read on wax moth today advises not to store supers in plastic sacks.
Normally, we extract as soon as we take the supers. This year, the stacks were getting high, so we decided to take them as they became ready, and store them until we'd taken all from that apiary.
Thankfully, the bees at our other apiary have been slow capping, so we left the supers on there.

 

[enrico]

Sorry, when I commented I didn't realise they were unspun frames. I thought they were stored after extraction. I would extract as usual and sieve. What is going to be in the jar that might not be in it anyway from the hive.
Tin hat on!
E