I was observing that Bees were throwing out some crumbled mesh for the past 2 days. Took a detailed observation today of one of the “active” hives
A couple of frames had some kind of white comb on the top, and when I observed the bottom of the hive, I did see some white insects crawling, I’m sure these have crawled for the left over pollen on the butter paper that is crumbled. I squished them with my hands.
However, I’m afraid if the white patches I observed in the frames above are related to any infection
Pls advice on any prevention of infestation.
I cleaned the base of 2 hives, the 3rd one seems to be healthy
Hi Usha, what I’m seeing is new white comb. Spring may have sprung where you are.You should start to see an increase in brood rearing. Look out for signs of swarming over the next few months.
I don’t know what the white crawling insects are. Hopefully nothing to worry about.
Thank you Jeff
These insects were something like we find in rice , I ignored the left over butter paper on which I fed the pollen.
I left it on top of the frames since bees were still over it.. this was about 3 weeks ago, Later the bees started to chew it and push it out of the entrance. Some crumbled pieces were still there at the bottom and the white insects were under them. I think these are beetles larve. I will check again tomorrow. Even at 9:00 in the morning, it is quite hot here now.
Why would the bees swarm if the population is low?
I will keep a watch on these hives
If they are grubs, they could be hive beetle of wax moth grubs. With a good photo, I can confirm which one it is.
A population swells to swarming strength during the springtime in the majority of cases. You may not have to worry right now, however monitor the colonies just to see how much their numbers are building. A lot of colonies swarm at some time during spring, or early summer. Swarming is how bees reproduce.
I was quite scared so I squished them immediately.
I was checking on the internet to find a similar picture, it matched with beetle larve, do beetle larve move?
I will check again tomorrow
Yes they do move about. They could be feasting on the pollen you are feeding the bees. I forgot to mention that you probably should stop feeding if spring has sprung, especially if you’re bees are bringing in plenty of pollen, which they normally do during spring.
I stopped feeding pollen for about 3 weeks now. I still keep feeding sugar solution once in a week, if at all I need to strengthen the hive
My mistake was no to clean up the hive for the pollen wasted, butter paper used for feeding pollen.. Which I did yesterday–lessons still to be learnt
The bees are now getting their pollen although the frames are not indicating that they have plenty of pollen sources
