Beemaster's International Beekeeping Forum
BEEKEEPING LEARNING CENTER => DISEASE & PEST CONTROL => Topic started by: Georgia Boy on June 30, 2013, 09:50:40 pm
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Haven't been into my hives for a week. Trying to be good and leave them alone so they can build up now that the queens are finally laying eggs.
Anyway we took pictures so we could be in and out as quickly as possible. And glad we did. This is what turned up on the photos.
In this photo I noticed what appeared to be a tunnel going under the cells of pollen and honey.
(http://s22.postimg.org/vdxucre65/1_DSC_0792_001.jpg) (http://postimg.org/image/vdxucre65/)
So I cropped and enlarged.
(http://s17.postimg.org/6mjd2mbkb/1_DSC_0792.jpg) (http://postimg.org/image/6mjd2mbkb/)
I believe this is Wax Moth larvae. Please tell me if I am right.
Went right back out and took the frame out of the hive. Then proceeded to closely check the others frames but didn't see any other damage. There were too many frames for the amount of bees in this hive. I removed the unused frames of drawn comb and replaced them with empty foundationless frames so the bees won't have to try and cover them.
I placed the infected frame in a bag and into the freezer it went.
Will watch hive closely to make sure there aren't more on the remaining frames.
Thanks David
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I think you're spot on!
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It could be either wax moth or small hive beetle. If this was in a strong hive, the bees would have removed the worm and dumped it out of the hive. For a weak hive, you did the right thing by removing it, freezing for 2 days and replacing it with foundation.
Jim
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Looks like a greater wax moth larvae.
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It may be due to the change in weather conditions . Don't worry about it.
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Wax moth larva. Good thing to take that frame out and freeze it. If you have a pull-out tray at the back of the hive, keep an eye out to see if you see any signs on the tray that correlate to that same side of the hive where you found them. Had wax moth larvae almost wipe one of my hives out this year and it was a lot like you said: not many bees on that side of the hive.
My hive was dwindling and queenless and I was gonna just let them go by the way-side until I spent 6 hours extracting a wild colony with my bro and our uncle.. We combined the bees into that hive and simply took that whole dwindling deep away about two weeks after the combine.. Those jokers wrecked a lot of frames! :yippiechick:
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yep looks like the work of Wax Moths.
This is the prime time of year for wax moths to infest a hive.
About the only chance a hive has is to have a large population of bees.
On these cool nights we've been having the bees will form a loose cluster.
The wax moth can fly at a colder temperature than a bee.
That is when they enter the hive and lay their eggs.
The guard bees are on the cluster so no one is guarding the entrance.
I've lost 2 hives I had from trap-outs to wax moths already.
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Great pic to show for us bee-ginners.
A couple weeks ago I spotted a moth on the outside of the hive. I swatted it and it dropped to the landing board. Immediately the girls attacked it and made sure it was well dead before they dragged it off the edge. Not sure if it was a wax moth but I suspect it was.
Oddly I did the same with a daddy-long-legs spider and instead of removing the body, they dragged it inside. Go figure.