What are these things on the bottom board in one of my hives.

[jamiev]

http://s72.photobucket.com/albums/i200/jamiev_photo/unidentified%20larvae%20white%20Bot%20Board/
If these are wax worms like the ones i saw in a recent thread on fgmo,"mites and mystery worm", then how does a first year three hive beekeeper deal with them? My SBB mite counts have been very low, but I haven't checked this hive in about 4 weeks...need to do it. Is the hive doomed? It is a first year NUC, initially not a very strong hive but it has been growing well recently. It fills a deep and a medium and I have a super on for them to build stores . I am feeding. What to do?

[Michael Bush]

You typically see wax moths on the bottom boards and especially under a SBB. I wouldn't worry unless you see them in the combs. If you do, you can spray with certan.

http://www.beeworks.com/uscatalog/details/certan.asp

[jamiev]

Thank you Michael. I have not seen it on the comb yet but will examine more closely next inspection.
Since yesterday when i found them on the SBB, I have been very concerned , now at least i know there is a remedy if I do have a larger problem.

[MichaelW]

I think certan is unavaliable at the moment.

If you have a tray under your screen, take it out and the bits of wax will fall to the ground. Wax falls on those trays and wax moth lavae like that the bees can't get to them while they eat the wax. Go through the hive and squish all the larvae you can find and scrape out any crud. If one frame is really bad with cobwebs and larvae, shake off the bees and freeze it, the thaw and replace. This has worked for me. If you don't see any larvae in the hive, then just removeing the screen tray should resolve the moth problem.

[Ron Young]

If old comb had wax moths on it, and a strong colony was removed from a house and placed on it, will they defeat the moths?

[jamiev]

Question If I shake off the bees and freeze the frame (s) with damage, what about the brood? Do I sacrifice it ? If I wait for brood to hatch then the queen may lay more eggs in it? But.. not for long at this time of year right? maybe that is the answer?

[jamiev]

Nice removal photos NCBeginer. I want one of those vacs but I admit a removal seems a bit "scary" to me. My understanding from what Ive read here is that it depends on colony strength and how much the comb has been damaged

[Ron Young]

That was my first removal. I have to admit that my mentor had tried to get me into bees all summer, and I had pretty much made up my mind that I was going to wait until next spring and start all new, with packaged bees. But, as you can see, I ended up getting a rather un-orthadox start in beekeeping. But to quoat my mentor "If the bees do not make it through the winter, you still will have a great deal of experience when you get started in the spring. Besides, the house is going to be destroyed anyway, and the bees will be killed."

So here I am, trying to feed these bees all they will take in order to get them through to spring.

[Tia]

Ron, if you like removals, wish you lived closer! There's a guy over in Marshallberg. . .just about 3 miles from me. . .who has a colony in his chimney. He says it's definitely honeybees--his dad was a beekeeper--and they've only been in there about 3 months. Like every homeowner, he wants them removed right away. He has a roofer coming in a week and has to have them out by then. He said you could just reach right into the chimney and pull out the comb! I'm so tempted, but I've got a gimpy leg and climbing up onto a roof doesn't make me comfortable. I've notified bee clubs and extension offices all around the area in the hopes I can find someone who wants to go hive them. Wish I could find someone to save those bees.

[balhanapi]

Hello Ron, How did you get the queen?(I remember iddee congratulating you on that somewhere in this forum). did you just vaccum her up and were just plain lucky or did you find her actively first and caged her or something? Nice photos the queen is really good one going by the amount of brood.. congrats!

[ September 14, 2006, 12:12 PM: Message edited by: balhanapi ]

[Michael Bush]

If a hive has wax moths in their comb they need more bees to defend it and clean it up. Some Bt (certan etc) would help with the moths, but the real problem is the amount of combs relative to the amount of bees.

[jamiev]

Re inspected the hive...I found three med honey frames (No Brood)with obvious wax moth damage. I shook off th bees and put them in the freezer. I will thaw today and put back in the hive right? will that help the bees? the honey is for them. Hive has very low mite counts. Just want to be sure I am on the ruight course with these wax moths.