Honey safety after moth damage

[Working Drone]

Classic rookie mistake. Got distracted after taking off full frames of honey and left 4 frames in a plastic bag in the garage for two weeks. Now I know what wax moths are like up close and personal. Luckily the damage wasn't too bad. Mostly on one frame and only about ten coccoons and maybe ten worms. Sealed up the frames in another bag and froze them for a week, and they all died. Spun out the honey and cleaned the frames, ( actually washed them), and they're back in the freezer for good measure.

But what about the honey? Is it contaminated by moth frass such that we cant eat it? We dont sell any, so no issue there, but it looks and smells great and we don't take much, so I hate to waste it. It went through the 600 and 400 micron filters on my bucket, but it's taking forever to go through the 200 micron.

I read somewhere that the average person consumes a certain amount of insects yearly without even knowing, and there's brobably microscopic bits of bee in most honey, at least mine, so what's a little moth excrement?

Thought maybe somebody here would know.

Guess I could always feed it back to the bees.

So, will my honey make me sick?

[beedeetee]

It probably won't hurt you. Honey is pretty antibacterial. In one of the standard bee books, ABC or Hive and Honey Bee, noted a study where they put various bacteria in honey to see how it survived. As I remember there were 6-10 different bacteria including strep and cholera. I think (I read this at least 10 years ago) some types were dead in 5 hours and the longest lived 5 days.

I figure that my immune system needs something to do every so often anyway. I'm also amazed after camping for a day or two how little some dirt bothers me. If I drop a fork at home, I get a new one. If I drop a fork camping, I wipe it on my dirty pants and use it.

[honeyman46408]

But what about the honey? Is it contaminated by moth frass such that we cant eat it?

[Working Drone]

Hey thanks. Always good to hear from the voice of experience. Wont worry about it then. Will wait a while to use it. Will check ABC too, I'm sure I have that here somewhere. Wont make that mistake again either if I can help it. We've never taken off more than 4 frames at a time so far, (only one hive), so I'll make sure to extract right away.