I just bought 7 deep brood boxes 10 frame and a garden hive with 4 medium 8 supers at auction. The previous owner of all these boxes informed me, (after I won) that when she had bought the boxes from another person they didn’t tell her there were moth larvae in them and all her boxes she previously owned, plus the ones I just got wound up infested with moths and she lost all her bees. I’m preety sure the loss of bees wasn’t because of the moths, but because she had a weak hive and might have been infected or killed by something else. (not mentioned). Then she told me she wintered the boxes and all moths should be dead, but I’m now in the process of doind a deep clean on the frames. So far all the frames that had comb on them I scraped off because I could see what I thought was white fuzzy stuff trailing in all directions under the comb. I’m assuming this came from the moths and am wondering if I did the right thing by scraping the comb away? Also while cleaning the inside of boxes I noticed what looked like little red spots on the inside of boxes themselves. The color resembles tobasco sauce. Is this something I should be concerned about. I can’t find any mention anywhere about red spots. Help?
Seems like that information should have been disclosed before the auction… that sucks. Do you have a chest freezer or other large freezer that you can perform your own sterilization with?
Hi @tony
Perhaps post some photos here of the things you are seeing in your boxes and on the frames. It would be helpful for getting some more useful info form the knowledgeable people here.
Best of luck.
Is it possible the red is just propolis? Ours is frequently a bright redish-purple.
The white might just be mold, which isn’t really a problem. The freezer treatment is best of the moth issue.
Thanks Dexter, I watched the video. It was interesting and might be a viable option down the road for me. I like to be handy with my hands anyway so making new foundations looks like fun.
It could be that. I was just wondering if mite leave a color trail or have any color like I described to them?
I would post photos but I had already cleaned them off and am ready to place hive.