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Author Topic: dreaded wax moth...  (Read 3332 times)

Offline Sindirt

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dreaded wax moth...
« on: June 17, 2017, 05:16:25 am »
Hi all
So have had some ongoing issues with wax moth, losing a weak swarm hive I had to them despite my best efforts to remove as much of the affected areas as I could. I foolishly took some honey frames out of a couple other hives and whilst dithering building my own honey extractor the first of the honey frames in a row became affected in the container I had them in. I removed these and put them in the freezer. Ideally would be good I suppose to try and rescue the honey, the frames have I'd say light infestation. Should I dispose of the frames once coming out of the freezer or could they be recycled by the bees after the freezing process. Thinking they could repair/clean the affected areas or is this a bad idea? Additionally a little concerned about the other frames, they were all upright and next to each other and only really evidence of the infestation on the first two frames out of 7 more. Any thoughts?

Offline turando

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Re: dreaded wax moth...
« Reply #1 on: June 17, 2017, 06:38:18 am »
Put them back in some hives (not weak ones) and they should clean them up well. We had a similar issue once and they cleaned them up nicely.

Offline Andersonhoney

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Re: dreaded wax moth...
« Reply #2 on: June 18, 2017, 08:39:56 am »
40 hrs in the freezer will kill any moth eggs, larvae etc.

Offline Sindirt

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Re: dreaded wax moth...
« Reply #3 on: June 18, 2017, 10:02:28 am »
Many thanks, I'll make sure and keep them in 40 hours then return the frames to one of the stronger hives.

Offline BeeMaster2

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Re: dreaded wax moth...
« Reply #4 on: June 18, 2017, 12:01:06 pm »
I prefer to remove as much of the web and cocoons as possible. A lot of the bees that try to remove the webbing will get trapped and die and have to bee removed. The cocoons are very difficult for the bees to remove.
Jim
Democracy is 2 wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch. Liberty is a well armed lamb contesting the vote.
Ben Franklin

Offline little john

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Re: dreaded wax moth...
« Reply #5 on: June 19, 2017, 07:04:04 am »
By coincidence, I found myself clearing-out a wax-moth infested hive just yesterday.  I did as Jim suggested and cut-out the web and the worst of the 'nest' - I think doing that is essential.   I then followed any significant tracks through the combs with a knife blade, evicting the larger larvae whenever I encountered one.

I saw that one or two small worms were wriggling away and diving into cells, so placed those combs into the freezer for a couple of days.  Then they'll be put back into a strong hive to re-build the damage.
LJ

A Heretics Guide to Beekeeping - http://heretics-guide.atwebpages.com

Offline azzkell

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Re: dreaded wax moth...
« Reply #6 on: June 19, 2017, 02:26:21 pm »
I have found that a couple of days works well however, the comb becomes very brittle whilst frozen and crumbles rather easily so stand upright and be super careful removing from freezer.
Good luck

Offline Michael Bush

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Re: dreaded wax moth...
« Reply #7 on: June 21, 2017, 09:49:47 am »
Compress the hive (remove any combs that covered in bees) and freeze the removed combs to kill the wax moths.  Hopefully get the hive down to less boxes.  Put foundationless or frames with just foundation in the empty spots (they bees can guard the foundation easier than comb).

http://www.bushfarms.com/beeswaxmoths.htm
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