After beekeeping for 6 years I have seen my first case of a mild wax moth infestation. I didn’t see any
wax moths but did see the wax moth larvae.
I think I was lucky in that the infestation was rather small. They appeared to have gained a foot hold in a
hive that was in decline. The hive appears to
have been queenless, which the beekeeper
(ie. Me) did not detect. The hive had also
been robbed out. The sudden decline in flight activity alerted me that something was amiss. The hive had done a good job through the honey
flow, filling one deep and one medium.
Being lazy I quit the biweekly inspections due to the difficulty of
moving the full deep. If I had done so I
would have detected the decline in time to re-queen the hive.
At any rate the wax moth(s) was able to gain entrance into
the hive and lay eggs which progressed to the larvae stage. In total I found about 6 cocooned larvae and
may 10 more active larvae. I removed all
larvae and cocoons. Cold weather will
kill any I have missed. There are no
bees remaining in the hive to keep the larvae warm. See the
photos below for pictures of the larvae and cocoons.
I haven’t seen any larvae or cocoons in any other active
hives, so conclude that a strong hive quickly ejects a wax moth trying to enter
the hive to lay eggs.
Several larvae.
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