Wax moths in Honey Supers.

[jhs494]

At our last bee meeting we had a guest speaker and during his talk he mentioned that wax moths will not go into honey supers as long as they have never had brood in them.

He suggested that you should use excluders and never allow brood to be laid into your honey supers and wax moths will not bother these frames.

He gave an explanation as to why, but I am curious as to other thoughts and opinions on this.

Does anyone have any experience either way with this?

Thanks in advance,
Joe

[jdpro5010]

I am about 20 minutes north of you by the way. I have found that wax moth do indeed grow in honey supers that have never been laid in or had brood in at all. The reason they say they won't go into brood supers is because the larvae are after the cocoons and left over bee bread for food. In honey supers that have never been used as brood frames, will not have either of these food sources to attract the wax moth larvae. Which makes sense in the fact that no food no reason to go there line of thinking. My wax moths just don't follow the rules the way they should I guess lol. Which bee meeting were you at?

[Rohe Bee Ranch]

I've had wax moths invade honey supers that have never had brood in them also. I have alsoheard the same thing as you that they won't do this, but reality is different in my experience.

[jhs494]

Originally Posted by jdpro5010

Which bee meeting were you at?

We are members of the Columbiana-Mohaning County Beekeepers Association.
The speaker gave an outstanding talk and this is one point that he had mentioned and I wasn't sure if anyone had experiences that was different than this.
This being our first year I hadn't came across anything that could say otherwise.

[USCBeeMan]

SHBs larva will devastate honey supers....

[odfrank]

My honey supers are 30-40 years old and never attacked by wax moths. I use excluders. I store them in a shop unprotected.

[beedeetee]

I have never (well, see below) had them in my honey supers either and I use excluders. This last August I had a stack of supers in my garage after extracting with a lid on the top. I had a small piece of brood wax with the remains of two queen cells that I had cut out of a frame and placed in another hive earlier.

The piece of wax was about 1" square. One day I noticed a worm and found 3 wax moth larva had hatched out on the thing. I looked through my honey supers which were right next to the counter with the piece of wax but didn't find anything. I checked every few days for a while but never found any wax worms. They have since been moved to my shop for the winter.

I tried not using excluders quite a few years ago and I did have a problem back then. I still have wooden frames with wax moth marks all over them from that time. I don't know if I have a big wax moth though. I never really see them in my hives. I was surprised to see the three worms on the piece of wax. So I won't go so far to say that they never are a problem in honey supers that have not had brood in them, but so far so good for me.

[theriverhawk]

If given the choice, WM's will always choose the frames that have had brood in them first. But they will get into supers that haven't had brood. I've had it happen. Luckily, I caught it early and they met their maker(Satan) in the freezer!

[jdpro5010]

I too was at the meeting lol. I was the one elected to the board of directors. I thought Lee's talk was good, but please bear in mind that if you have 100 speakers at a bee meeting giving an answer to the same question you will inevitably get 100 different answers. I would agree that given a chance wax moths will go to brood frames first but believe me they will get into your honey supers also.

Don't worry a whole lot about SHB as they have not found our area yet .

[mgmoore7]

I hate the moths....

I have found the following in 3 years of learning this stuff.
-the moths will definately go after wax that has had brood over without.
-the next thing they like is pollen. So if there are cells of pollen in the supers, cut them out. Beetles like this too.
-The Xentari does work but be sure to spray it well at the right consistency and don't use any that is old.
-leaving the tops open may help but not that much. I find moths in there with tops on or not.
-the moths will even use fully drawn plastic that has a little wax on top. As me how I know.....
-beetles will desomate supers if they have any pollen or honey residue. Be sure they are 100% clean
-I am going to start using the moth crystals. I am having too many problems with the wax moth year round her in FL.