Grub id

[Millet]

Are these greater wax moth I found three on the outside of the wooden ekes under the over hang of the roof..none on the poly though...sent from my mobile so be patient ...

P.s they are around around 1 in long.

 

[Ian123]

Greater wax moth larve

 

[Millet]

Greater wax moth larve

Thank you for that.. i have tried to google them but i get loads that look the same and then greater wax moth larvae that look different..

 

[charlievictorbravo]

Wax Moth Infestation

It's 13° here and I thought I'd take the opportunity to remove the last feeder and to check on the progress of a weak colony. Removed the feeder without disturbing the bees too much but when I looked through the transparent crown board on the weak colony I saw three frames at each extremity absolutely covered in wax moths and their webbing.

Is there any treatment I can give at this time of the year that won't harm the bees and will not require all the frames to be pulled out? I was wondering whether a vapourised Oxalic Acid-based treatment would kill the wax moth larvae off?

I know that, whatever the question, the answer is strong colonies but this colony has a bit of history. Are the bees doomed?

Any thoughts?

CVB

 

[enrico]

Nothing to lose, swap as many frames as possible. I reckon bees are doomed I am afraid!

 

[Millet]

I was moving some stored supers in the green house a couple of days ago and i spotted what looks like a single lesser wax moth grub tunnel through one of the frames..all i have at hand is my sulpher hotbox so i sulpher bombed the stacks of supers for 1hr each and sealed them back up... i will check again in a while to see if it has fettled it... god knows how it got in there though as everything is sealed tight.

 

[Popparand]

Yep. Greater wax moth

 

[charlievictorbravo]

Nothing to lose, swap as many frames as possible. I reckon bees are doomed I am afraid!

No in-situ treatment that you can think of?

CVB

 

[beeno]

It's 13° here and I thought I'd take the opportunity to remove the last feeder and to check on the progress of a weak colony. Removed the feeder without disturbing the bees too much but when I looked through the transparent crown board on the weak colony I saw three frames at each extremity absolutely covered in wax moths and their webbing.

Is there any treatment I can give at this time of the year that won't harm the bees and will not require all the frames to be pulled out? I was wondering whether a vapourised Oxalic Acid-based treatment would kill the wax moth larvae off?

I know that, whatever the question, the answer is strong colonies but this colony has a bit of history. Are the bees doomed?

Any thoughts?



CVB

Put them in a nuc. Dummy them down if need be, so that there are no unguarded frames. Good luck.

 

[Stiffy]

Put them in a nuc. Dummy them down if need be, so that there are no unguarded frames. Good luck.

But I would suggest the bees have either not had a good start or some other problem is also going on?
S

 

[birdsandbees]

Put them in a nuc. Dummy them down if need be, so that there are no unguarded frames. Good luck.

that's what I was going to suggest ;-)

 

[charlievictorbravo]

Thanks guys. It's forecast to be 13° with a 13 mph breeze tomorrow so I'll put the bees on the middle frames into a nuc box and treat the infested frames in another nuc with acetic acid, then freeze - that should sort out the larvae and eggs.

The reason the colony is weak is because it had queen problems during the summer - two supercedures. Last inspection with the SBI early in September, we found no queen but an empty queen cell plus there was evidence of CBPV. The decision was the leave them alone and let them fade away but if there was a virgin queen about and she got mated, they might just make it (small chance) but the wax moth seem to have done for them. It's probably a 'forlorn hope' but hope springs eternal!

CVB

 

[birdsandbees]

Oh no! I've had CBPV twice, the first time I went down the same approach, leave them to it, they did re-queen themselves and did recover but it came back again in the Spring and they died out.
I had it in one again this year, this time they did just dwindle, its a shame to see a colony go like this when there's not really anything you can do, I even tried shaking them all out (minus the queen) half way down the field, the idea being that the worst infected bees can't make it back, I repeated this twice but to no avail, they still died out.

 

[charlievictorbravo]

Well the weather stayed warm(ish) on Tuesday and I opened them up and put the central frames in a nuc, removing any evidence of wax moth as I did it. The outer frames were a real mess - totally infested with large wax moth and a sprinkling of small wax moth. I cleaned up the frames as best as I could and put the frames in an empty nuc and gave it some Acetic Acid to evaporate and kill off the little beasties.

As for the bees, I did not see any brood or a queen and they appeared pretty docile (or were they moribund?) but there were so few of them that I suspect they going through the "fading away" phase as predicted by the SBI. I'll protect the nuc from the weather as best I can but I doubt they'll last much into the new year. Oh well, goodbye cruel world.

CVB

 

[For want of a better word]

Did you check for EFB with a LFD test kit... when you had brood and SBI suspected CBPV?

On the precautionary principle I would burn all the frames and wax and bees... and scorch out the boxes and dip in Dettol for a day....

Maybe hard on the pocket...

You an never be too sure

Chons da

 

[Parsonage Bees]

I've seen a few wax moths and larvae this year.

I'm a believer in checking the tray under my OMFs and have seen this odd looking 'poo'. Tray is wet with oil. Photo a bit out of focus but for scale varroa on lower left.

Are the 5-6 rectangular blobs wax moth poo?

. . . . Ben

 

[Beefriendly]

They look a little like earwig droppings but not 100% sure. Difficult to judge size as not sure which are varroa due to out of focus

 

[Parsonage Bees]

Looks like could be mouse droppings, they look a little too big for earwig droppings.

No other sign of mouses. Like bedding or damage to comb.
This poo not spread across colony but as an odd patch.

 

[charlievictorbravo]

No other sign of mouses. Like bedding or damage to comb.
This poo not spread across colony but as an odd patch.

I would say that the long black cylindrical pieces of debris are wax moth faeces. I saw lots of it when I split up my hive into nucs. I should have taken photos of what I cleared out of my hive. When I open up the 'messy framed' nuc, I'll look for anything in the way of faeces to photograph for you.

CVB

 

[masterBK]

I also think it looks like faeces from greater wax moth.