Monday 28 May 2012

Unwanted visitors

I went to see my ailing colony on Saturday and found this critter crawling on the comb. Any ideas what it is?


4 comments:

  1. I'd guess at wax moth larvae, but that is just a guess. Have a look at this link http://www.beeworks.com/informationcentre/wax_moth.html as a starter? Pete

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  2. As Pete says it looks like a wax moth larve. Could be the final nail in the coffin for this small colony. Would be a case of deep cleaning all the dark corners, and filling in all gaps before installing more bees.

    Boyd

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  3. Not wanting to be totally sad but I think it's greater wax moth (sat thru 2 hour talk on wax moth and just about stayed awake) as Boyd says clean and probably best to blow torch inside of hive.
    A word of caution they are attracted by wax left around so good house keeping is essential if you want them kept away.
    Also a strong healthy colony will keep them under control.

    Dave

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  4. Thanks for the replies guys. As you know these were my first bees, installed into a newly constructed hive. Do you think they have randomly found me or been transfered when we did the split?

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