waxmoth....

[Cuckmere couple]

when i've seen evidence of wax moth under cappings...i've always thought there was only a single larvae under there

found about 4-5 in same area of frame today

also need to remember to have a frame pin to get at occasional hole in frame which has been laid up

am i missing some hygiene practice in terms of minimising waxmoth?

 

[Cuckmere couple]

answer my own question...dont really do this but will take more care....pretty judicious at freezing frames prior to storing and sealing once stored and dont leave wax or boxes on the apiary floor...dont always clear up burr comb etc from boxes/frames in active colonies though

Wax moth infestations are caused by unhygienic management practices; leaving scraps of burr comb lying around the apiary and empty and exposed supers or brood boxes with drawn comb in

 

[Swarm]

What they don't tell you is how some colonies annoyingly don't seem too bothered by them, they deal with them as and when they need to.
Sloppy hygiene won't help but sometimes your bees don't help either

 

[blackcloud]

A good thing for the associations to do would be to get the newbs to strip some old brood frames and clean old brood boxes
Either as punishment or education but it would be a lesson as to how ingenious the larvae are at finding and making places to hide

 

[Sutty]

I cleaned up a VERY old brood box recently - not used for 20+ years, needed a bit of filler etc. Could see old waxmoth cucoons on the inside surface. Scraping them off it was interesting to note that they seemed to have "etched" into the wood surface.

 

[pargyle]

I cleaned up a VERY old brood box recently - not used for 20+ years, needed a bit of filler etc. Could see old waxmoth cucoons on the inside surface. Scraping them off it was interesting to note that they seemed to have "etched" into the wood surface.

You ought to see what they are capable of doing to polyhives ....

 

[JamezF]

You ought to see what they are capable of doing to polyhives ....

Been there, done that. Left with a pile of powdered polystyrene

James

 

[Ian123]

You ought to see what they are capable of doing to polyhives ....

In particular the roofs

 

[pargyle]

Been there, done that. Left with a pile of powdered polystyrene

James

I had a poly Nuc ... forgot to treat the frames in it ...wax moth got in there pver winter and as you say - virtually nothing left of it ... they had burrowed so deeply into the polystyrene that it was totally beyond repair - ghastly mess. Lesson learnt ...

 

[Sutty]

There is some investigation into using them, or their enzymes, to digest plastic.

 

[Cuckmere couple]

yes....i've always acted pretty quickly with poly hives/nucs....i also put nucs in the freezer but not sure how long for with the insulation so leave about a fortnight