Hi all;
I pulled out a varroa trap type screen board this morning during an (external) observation of my hives and in anticipation of a 95 degree day here. I found a fairly big caterpillar, about an inch long, dark gray with a brown head in the normal debris-wax moth? Form lack of my experience, I am assuming that this is the dreaded wax moth larvae. It had made a cocoon out of the wax capping that had dropped down from the hive, and ran for shade. There appeared to be a couple other there too but they were smaller, around 3/16 of an inch or so. I took the board out, crushed the caterpillars and cleaned off with some bleach and water. The hives been strong but slightly less than the one next to it which has a solid bottom board and in the last deep inspection, I didn't see anything in either hive. They are both first year hives that built up fast and have three medium suppers on top of two deep brood boxes. I was planning on waiting two more weeks to harvest as the top super (of three) are only about a third capped. Recommendations?
I pulled out a varroa trap type screen board this morning during an (external) observation of my hives and in anticipation of a 95 degree day here. I found a fairly big caterpillar, about an inch long, dark gray with a brown head in the normal debris-wax moth? Form lack of my experience, I am assuming that this is the dreaded wax moth larvae. It had made a cocoon out of the wax capping that had dropped down from the hive, and ran for shade. There appeared to be a couple other there too but they were smaller, around 3/16 of an inch or so. I took the board out, crushed the caterpillars and cleaned off with some bleach and water. The hives been strong but slightly less than the one next to it which has a solid bottom board and in the last deep inspection, I didn't see anything in either hive. They are both first year hives that built up fast and have three medium suppers on top of two deep brood boxes. I was planning on waiting two more weeks to harvest as the top super (of three) are only about a third capped. Recommendations?