cedar blocks for moths

[amandrea]

I was in the grocery store and saw natural cedar blocks for sale to put in the closet to keep moths away. I assume they'd work in the hive for wax moths while having no effect on the bees.  Anyone with an opinion on this?

[Apis629]

How big are the blocks?  For them to repell the moths, I'd assume they'd be large enough to infringe on "bee space".  Besides, there are ceder hives available and, I've heard nothing of those hives having  fewer moths than others.

[Zoot]

For what it's worth, I have made a number of cedar mediums over the winter and have been storing frames in them (untreated). Moths got into them even though the cedar was extremely aromatic. Didn't seem to make a difference.

[Michael Bush]

>I assume they'd work in the hive for wax moths while having no effect on the bees.

Cedar has no effect on wax moths.  If you want natural wax moth control you need to either freeze them often (the weather is helpful here) or use Certan (Bt):

http://www.beeworks.com/catalog/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=1&products_id=18
http://forum.beemaster.com/index.php?topic=6102.0

[Apis629]

Probably the best thing you can do for the prevention of wax moth dammage would be to ensure you keep the hives strong and, when the supers aren't on the hives, have them properly stored with Certan, as MB suggested, PDB fummigation (which I use) or freezing.

[Michael Bush]

http://www.bushfarms.com/beespests.htm#waxmoths