I'm having a hard time keeping Wax Moths from laying in my stored frames. What is the best way to store them ? Is there a chemical that will keep the Moth from laying in the frames of drawn comb ? After extraction, I place them in the super then inside a heavy plastic leaf bag and seal it and tape it. When I opened them this spring they were trashed and the bottom of the bag was full of dead moths and larvae.
I leave the frames in the super and lay it on it's side in the barn. You can stack the supers on each other. I make sure there is plenty of space between the supers. Moths don't like light. Seems to work well.
I spray with BT and then store them. The wax moths will still be attracted but the moth larva will die off. I also have the advantage of cold winters (well, sort of cold winters) and that helps too. The one year I forgot to spray I had quite a bit of over winter damage.
PDB (Para Dichloro Benzene) is a carcinogen. It is also lipophilic (loves wax). The bees hate the smell as much as the moths... I can think of a lot of reasons not to use it...
Bt works fine. Leaving the boxes on the hives works fine as well. The bees will guard the comb.
You can try putting them in the freezer for 48 hours to kill any eggs. Than seal them up tight and store them. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. I really hate using any chemicals on, near, or far from my bees.
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