Off-Subject somewhat but..

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donald adams

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Jan 10, 2016, 2:14:57 PM1/10/16

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Yesterday caught a fine article in the latest edition of ‘American Bee Journal’ by Robert Weast (‘The Wild Silk Moths of the United States’: Collins & Weast) on Wax Moth infestation of Honeybee colonies. Both the ‘Greater Wax Moth’ (Galleria mellonella) and ‘Lesser Wax Moth’ (Achroia grisella) females gain entrance, mostly to weak colonies not able to cover all of their combs or guard their entrance, at night and deposit eggs inside the hive in small cracks and crevices. These hatch into cats that then tunnel through both combs and woodwork in silken tubes and gain nourishment, not from wax, but from the pupal casings and cocoons left behind in the comb cells. In so doing, both combs and hive woodwork can be rendered completely destroyed which I’ve experienced on many occasions. Thus, these moths can be a really serious pest to beekeepers, but others argue that, in nature, they perform a valuable function by re-cycling old deserted and possibly disease-ridden combs.

Northern beekeepers can treat infested empty overwintering woodwork by exposing to a temp of 20 degrees F for four hours. This will kill all stages of moths present. “Beekeepers living in the deep south… can simply place bottomless supers on top of a Fire Ant nest and presto: ants will clean out the wax worms”. Wish Winter/Gypsy moths could be treated something like this!!