Hive Massacre - Wax Moth or Hive Beetle?

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I’m a relatively new bee keeper (4 years).

I had 9 hives destroyed 2 years ago as part of the veroa containment program in Sydney but was able to start again beginning 2024 with 4 hives and split them to 10 hives by end of 2024.

For the past 4 months i’ve been battling what I thought was wax moth, but now it seems i’ve also had a massive infestation of hive beetle? I’m still not sure if it’s wax moth, hive beetle or both. If someone more experienced could help me identify the issue that would be really appreciated.

All of my hives were thriving up to around October 2024. One day I was mowing the lawn and noticed a swarm in a tree above the hives, and after a hive inspection I discovered the entire colony had absconded. The hive had plenty of resources including honey, bee bread, and also capped brood, and though it had some evidence of some wax moth trails I could not identify a major issue that might cause the colony to vacate.

This part may be important so I’ll include it here:

I cleaned up the effected frames and spread them out to 3 other stronger hives. Maybe this was my first mistake?

About a month later I had 2 more hives fail - again, the colonies had absconded.

After coming back from a 3 week holiday - i noticed little bee activity for 3 of the hive entrances and knew I had a problem. Today I had to destroy 4 of the 6 remaining hives, as they were so infested they were not recoverable.

I’ve since moved the last 2 hives from their current location, to an area 100 meters away in the sun, surrounded by lawn. They had previously been under a tree, with mulch as ground cover.

I have a brand new flow hive and dont want to set it up until I’m on top of what’s going on here.

Some feedback from experienced bee keepers would be welcome.

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Hi Matt, sadly the thousands of grubs are hive beetle larvae. The first thing to strongly emphasize is to not let them make it to ground, because they will bury down about 4", which is where they will complete their life cycle, before emerging as hive beetles.

I was recently told that a bad infestation of varroa will cause a colony to abscond. Once that happens, there’s nothing stopping the beetles from laying eggs in the remaining resources in the hive.

Not only will varroa cause a colony to abscond, hive beetle slime, if there’s enough of it will also cause a colony to abscond, resulting in what your photos indicate.

With varroa under control, all that’s needed for us to make sure is that a colony has:
#1 A strong work force.
#2 No large areas of drone brood.
#3 No brood or pollen without a decent covering of worker bees on them.
#4 No large honey spills
#5 No squashed or damaged brood or bees after an inspection.
On top of that, nothing outside of a hive that beetles can breed in.

If a lot of beetle larvae have recently made it to ground, the ground can be treated with something that the DPI approves of.

PS, it’s important to bear in mind that drones do no work in the hive, which includes defending. Drones wont stop beetles from laying eggs. Only workers will do that.

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Thanks

Thanks for the advice Jeff much appreciated. I have a lot to learn here.

The bases I am using are vented and do not have trays. Is this a bad idea? I’m guessing this allows the SHB grub to fall through to ground? I can buy trays if needed.

I have reviewed photos of the hives that failed and its pretty clear I’ve made a fundamental mistake. I had not installed SHB traps. The 2 hives that survived had at least 2 of the clear plastic SHB traps (filled with olive oil) and they were almost full of SHB. It’s a pretty basic mistake. I was fixated on wax moth beeing the problem and forgot the basics. Pretty disappointing, and expensive.

I’ll be putting at least 4 of the plastic SHB traps in each hive and starting again. Then i’ll setup my new flow hive now that I understand what the problem was.

Thanks for your advice Jeff.

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You’re welcome Matt.

I only use solid floors, so therefore my advice would be to do the same. Bees can regulate the hive temp better without added ventilation.

I agree, there is a lot to learn. Sadly learning the hard way can be heartbreaking to say the least.

I don’t use any traps whatsoever. The thing I do is keep my 5 point plan in place at all times. Basically, everything I do, I do with hive beetles in mind. If I let my guard down, I come to grief.
#3 is a very important one to keep in mind, especially when doing splits, or using brood to bolster a weaker hive.

If you can put my 5 point plan into place, you wont need any traps. Also consider treating the ground if you think any grubs entered it. That will help the situation going forward.

Good luck Matt, cheers for now.

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ok will do thanks again Jeff, that was very helpful!

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Unfortunately, your story is one I’m hearing every week. The problem isn’t moth or SHB, it’s varroa. The massive infestation rates are weakening colonies so much that they can’t defend against SHB which then overrun the hive, sliming it out. Moths move in to clean up the left overs. Bees often abscond, but they take mites with them eventually leading to their demise.
The official advice is to check your mite load using alcohol or soapy water wash every four weeks. In my opinion, more often is better. I’ve seen counts go from 2 to over 60 in two weeks. When was your last wash and what were the levels?
Mike

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You’re welcome Matt. I have to reiterate what I said earlier, now especially after Mike’s reply to focus on preventing the colony from absconding by keeping varroa in check.

A phone call last week from a bloke in NSW chasing bee colonies basically echoed what @aussiemike said.

I’m sure that hive beetle trap sales go through the roof during these times. However it’s not the lack of beetle traps that cause the problem, it’s the lack of worker bees that can’t stop the beetles from laying eggs. This especially happens after a colony absconds. No amount of traps will stop them once that happens.

In closing, I can recall hives at one location a few years ago housing at least 500 beetles each. A nearby hive must have slimed out resulting in high beetle numbers. I killed as many as I could, however I didn’t worry about the hives getting slimed on account of my 5 point strategy in place.

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Thanks for the input. I can’t find detail on my last results. I’m building a beekeeping app currently and will be able to look all this info up in an instant. I’m planning another mite test in the next week when weather permits and will pay careful attention.

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Thanks again Jeff,

I will pay more attention to those points during my next hive inspections. I have 2 strong hives left and they seem to be going well.

On this point. We did receive a few loads of mulch that I eventually spread around the hives. I do wonder if this brought in a lot of HB? Is this possible?

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Hi Matt, no mulch wouldn’t be a problem. I should have explained a bit clearer what I meant. When I say “outside of the hive”, I mean nothing bee related, that might have brood, pollen, dead bees, or anything that beetles are likely to lay eggs in. Remember that hive beetles are looking for a protein source in hives for their larvae to feast on.

Once we understand the life cycle of beetles, & what they want to lay eggs in, coupled with the knowledge that only worker bees will chase them incessantly, preventing them from laying eggs, we’ve got the hive beetle game sown up.

This is where #2 comes in, because naturally drones do no work, including defending in a hive. So therefore it makes sense to minimize the amount of drones a colony can produce.

The main thing for us is to be constantly mindful of hive beetles when doing work in our hives.

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Looks like i’ve lost my last two hives in the last day or so. That’s a total of 9 hives lost.

These hives were thriving. Honey supers were about 80% full, brood boxes full of worker bees and not many drones. Lots of activity at the entrance. Now both have completely absconded.

Again, fair amount of small hive beetle. Did they move in after the bees absconded? Not sure, but its only been a few days between a thriving hive and having no bees at all, so I don’t think so.

Was it verroa? I don’t know, was going to do a wash this weekend.

Not sure whether i’m going to give it up. I’ll give it a few days and decide. If this is the new normal we can expect with verroa destructor then it’s probably more that I can tolerate.

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Unfortunately Matt, this level of reinfestation is the new normal for the next few years. Until the feral and unmanaged colonies mostly die out, everyone else’s hives will be heavily reinfested. I’m getting mite counts above threshold within a week of the end of a treatment. That means back to back treatments. Eventually that will drop to three or four times a year.
The official advice is to wash every four weeks, but I recommend two weeks. That extra two weeks is enough to lose your hives.
The other side of the coin is to restock with swarms from feral bees that are dealing with varroa on their own, but that’s a whole other discussion.
I know quite a number of beeks who are sitting it out for a few years until things settle down. It’s a good choice if you can’t dedicate the extra work it takes to manage varroa.
Mike

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Ok yes that makes sense now. I spoke to a family friend who is an hour south of me (Sydney area) and he has now lost 6 hives, down to his last two. He says he is seeing a lot of verroa. What a shame. I may start back up with just 2 hives, but the idea of running back to back treatments doesn’t excite me. Appreciate the information, it confirms what I have been reading and hearing elsewhere regarding mass hive absconding.

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