[Bob Bee]

I've never had this happen before. I pulled 5 supers and stacked them on top of one another. When I got down to the last 2 in the extracting process, I noticed some tiny white worm like things crawling on and in the comb.The way that tis super was capped was also different. Not white cappings, kinda dark with little lines all over it. Could this be wax moth larva? I did not notice any other signs of wax moth i.e. stringie web or messed up comb. Over 80% of the comb was capped. Will this damage the honey.
Thanks Folks.

 

[King bee apiary]

The larva sounds like small hive beetles.Not sure about the cappings.Was there a foul smell from the super?Like it went bad?If so it was the small hive beetles.These would be about 1/2" long.
Wax month larva are usually seen with the spider webs and droppings.They are about 1" long.
I hope others can help more than I.

 

[Bob Bee]

Thanks Tim,

No they were more like 1/4 inch long and the super looked and smelled normal. To the eye, they looked like a small version of the wax moth. I'm not sure what hive beetle larva looks like. I don't know that I've even seen an adult one. I did see a small dark colored beetle looking bug (round like a lady bug but lots smaller) about 3 total in the supers that I had stacked up. There were a good number of these larva though. I may try and get a pic. so maybe someone can help.
Thanks Bobby

 

[balhanapi]

Thats the small hive beetle http://maarec.cas.psu.edu/pest&disease/sl58b.html

and thats beelouse <<The way that tis super was capped was also different. Not white cappings, kinda dark with little lines all over it>>
http://maarec.cas.psu.edu/pest&disease/sl46.html
hope it helps..
good luck

 

[Bob Bee]

Thanks balhanapi,

I think you nailed it. That one picture of the unusual cappings is exactly what mine looks like. I guess the bee louse is just a free loader.
So I guess my next question is can I just extract as usual filtering out the little white larva without any harm?
Thanks again, Bobby

 

[balhanapi]

Hi bobby, not sure what the experts say about that but i would not extract any frame with that kind of capping (personal preference u can say). maybe u can give such frames back to the hive and look for any clean frames to extract.. lets see what the experts have to say about this..

MB
Bjorn bee
Pcolar
Iddee..
anybody from that league hello anybody..

[ August 25, 2006, 09:56 PM: Message edited by: balhanapi ]

 

[Hayseed]

"So I guess my next question is can I just extract as usual filtering out the little white larva without any harm?"

I guess it depends on what you call "harm"

Personally, I don't expect anyone else to eat any of my honey products that I wouldn't eat - and I'm fussy - I don't even extract frames until I've removed all dead bees. But, for me, this is a hobby, not a business - I can afford to be fussy.

If I have a frame that is "contaminated" beyond practical processing, I place it where the girls can rob the honey and return it to a hive. Not very efficient but seems to work.

Dale

 

[balhanapi]

Thats exactly what i would do..

 

[beegee]

You should freeze the frames for a couple of days to kill the critters before feeding it back to the bees(or extracting and filtering)