Hello fellow Bee Keepers, I am a newbie and have my first Flow Hive. Put my Nuc into the hive in November 2019. Bees have been doing great.
But I just checked my catch tray at the bottom of the hive and found this… Please can some one tel me what the brown dots are and what is the worm type bug!!
And what can I do about it.
Much apprecaited
The blobs look like dropped pollen balls soaked with oil.
There’s a few small hive beetles and the grubs look like the larvae of the Greater wax moth.
Just keep cleaning the tray out every 7-14 days it’s doing its job.
By the position of the legs the grubs are SHB larvae, there are a few SHB dead in the tray as well. The blobs are bits of wax and some pollen also possibly. There is nothing there to be concerned about, especially if your in Blaxland up from Penrith, NSW. If you see more than 10 SHB during your inspections I would but two beetle blaster traps for each level of your hive, the ones that sit between the 1st and 2nd frame in on each side. For a couple of $ each they work great and keep the SHB under control.
A tip, by slowly sliding the tray out you will see a line of bits of wax, that is the frames where bee have emerged and where you will find new eggs and larvae.
Welcome to the forum, lots to read and to get good advice on anything bee keeping. Your going well to still have a hive with the drought and the bush fires last Summer.
Cheers
Those two grubs look like they’re about 20mm long, too big to be SHB. They also lack the spines characteristic to SHB and appear to have prolegs which only appear on wax moth.
Thank-you, I was just concerned and my hive is very young, I have a beetle blaster I will put it in.
Thanks Stevo, Its the first time I have seen the grubs, I will have a good inspection to see if I can see any inside the hive.
With a young hive it is also a weak hive in bee numbers and that is ideal for a SHB infestation. When I start a new colony I always add traps to the brood box to reduce the breeding and number of SHB which is a big issue here. As the colony builds up with more bees they can normally manage without traps.
SHB thrive in warm and humid weather.
Cheers
Thats very helpful Peter , also found out that my hive swarmed and we have a lot of swarm cells. I did catch the swarm yesterday so we are going to do a very thorough inspection today to see if there is a new queen, clean out what we can and basically start out again and let them build up.
Hello Samantha, sad that the hive swarmed but is a part of learning about hive management. I prefer to do Spring splits at a time that suits me rather than loose 1/2 of the bees from a hive into the bush. OK, you caught that swarm this time, but it could have not been caught and so harmful for the environment.
The chances of seeing a newly emerged queen is slim, she won’t stand out like a mated queen does. Normally if a hive swarms there will be queen cells left behind in the hive so I would have a wine and don’t stress the colony, leave it alone for 2 or 3 weeks then look for larvae in the hive which will then confirm you have a laying queen. Once you confirm that then resort to your normal inspection times. Going into a hive looking for a virgin queen is something to avoid the urge, better to wait and look for brood confirming a mated queen.
Cheers
Peter, that is great advice, thank-you. Yes it was a bit of a disappointing feeling to lose half the hive; really appreciate the help
It took me a few years to ‘read’ the signs and to do preemptive swarm splits before the hives swarmed. It is worth learning about and save a lot of time and stress. Seems many bee keepers look at having their hives swarm in acceptable, even un-avoidable, but that isn’t true, in my opinion…
Cheers