Wax Moth

[pargyle]

OK ... I'm not panicking.

This morning I found two wax moth larvae on my inspection board, chomping away on the debris. I check the board twice a day anyway and I clean it daily and the two larvae that I found were still very small and are now dead ! They were lesser wax moth larvae.

But .. I haven't seen any evidence of eggs (they apparently lay up to 300 in each batch) and there are not a lot of places that eggs could be concealed in my hive. It's a strong bee colony so I'm pretty sure they will deal with any ingress into the actual hive.

So ... It seems that there must be Wax Moths about even though it's still early in the season. Do the adult moths over winter as adults or is this the result of an early emergent moth from the pupal state ?

Does anyone worry about wax moths ?

Michael Bush has a trap suggestion on his site:

"Basically a two liter bottle with small holes in the sides and a mixture of vinegar, banana peel and syrup inside seems to work well. The moths fly in the holes in the sides, drink, try to fly up and get trapped."

Does anyone bother trapping them ?

Has anyone else seen any evidence of the larvae yet this year ?

Lastly ... I know in a conventional hive it's not good practice to leave an inspection board in but my hive is not conventional, the board is part of my daily inspection routine and it's not left to just accumulate sh!t and other stuff.

 

[Tom Bick]

Yes I have seen a couple so far.
Only worried about stored combs.
Don't bother trapping them as can do some good

 

[Alabamaeee]

They can lay eggs in the tiniest of places, i.e. a hole the diameter of the frame pins is big enough for them to lay in from what I have read on the net (all is not 100% accurate on internet though

 

[YorkshireBees]

Cleaning up some old frames I have found cocoons behind the frame wedge once prised off!

Personally I'm not worried about frames in the hives as has been said it's stored frames that you have to watch!

 

[Bosleeu]

Don't worry about it, the bees will sort them out. I kill the ones I see, and once I had to throw an old frame away. Haven't seen any in more than a year now.

Sent from my GT-I9300 using Tapatalk

 

[Margaret Elisabeth]

I found two on the inspection board last summer but I think it's too cold here at the mo for eggs to hatch. I shall keep a good lookout though.

 

[oliver90owner]

Strong colonies are rarely troubled by wax moth but weak colonies, not using all the frames, can be destroyed by them.

I see a few and clear them out if I see the tell tale tracks, but never had a problem, ever with my bees. Now, empty frames can be different. I soon learned not to leave wax around without taking precautions.

RAB

 

[pargyle]

Well .. fortunately .. or not as the case may be ... I have no stored frames yet and the colony is nice and strong from the look of it through the clear crownboard ... bees on all 13 frames they have at present and it all looks very clean and tidy at the top of the hive ...

But I'll keep an eye open for any more wax moth larvae and squish 'em ...

 

[Amari]

OK ... I'm not panicking.


I check the board twice a day anyway and I clean it daily

Wow, that's devotion to your girls.

 

[pargyle]

OK ... I'm not panicking.


I check the board twice a day anyway and I clean it daily

Wow, that's devotion to your girls.

Obsession ... not devotion ! OCD Rules !!! I hope to be cured when I have TWO that I have to look at ....

 

[Chris Luck]

No shortage of wax moth in my part of the world but they never bother full colonies, only empty ones like this one I was cleaning out today.

Chris

 

[beeno]

Hi all,
I had a small batch of emerging wax moth under one of my hives with partial OMF a couple of weeks ago. My thought were a bit early in the season. Today, my nuc had thrown out two wax moth larvae of different sizes which I killed. Height of the wax moth season July, apparently. I predict bald brood in my locale!

 

[pargyle]

No shortage of wax moth in my part of the world but they never bother full colonies, only empty ones like this one I was cleaning out today.

Chris

Urghhhh ... they really are disgusting !!!

 

[Tom Bick]

No shortage of wax moth in my part of the world but they never bother full colonies, only empty ones like this one I was cleaning out today.

Chris

Nature’s way of performing comb change. In its own right its a wonderful thing.

 

[Chris Luck]

Urghhhh ... they really are disgusting !!!

Not at all, they occupy a niche in the way of things and are no different to any other species. Strong colonies have no problem dealing with them although it's possible to get "one or three" tucked away in a corner they won't be a bother. Arguably Bee keepers have increased their numbers by keeping bees and providing a greater food source for the larvae rather than the relatively few feral honey bees and died out Bumble bee nests there would be.

Chris

 

[pargyle]

Not at all, they occupy a niche in the way of things and are no different to any other species. Strong colonies have no problem dealing with them although it's possible to get "one or three" tucked away in a corner they won't be a bother. Arguably Bee keepers have increased their numbers by keeping bees and providing a greater food source for the larvae rather than the relatively few feral honey bees and died out Bumble bee nests there would be.

Chris

Yes ... guess you are right but they do look like something out of a B rate horror movie !!

Found another grub on my inspection board this morning ... only about 3mm long - they must grow at a phenomenal rate as there was no sign of anything there yesterday. Needless to say it's now a deceased larvae !