Can anyone help identify what’s going on here? Our poor bees have been fighting to stay healthy this summer and we noticed these white elongated pieces. From other images I’ve looked at, I don’t feel like these are wax moths since it’s isolated to this area and there doesn’t seem to be any evidence of moth larva or the silky/stringy webbing. I haven’t been able to identify this on the internet and we’re still pretty new at this. Any advice would be appreciated!
Also worth nothing we first noticed this on September 1st and from our research, it seemed like it could just be debris from old queen cells?
Yes that is wax moth activity. If you pull those cocoons apart, there should be a wax moth pupae inside.
Hi Abbey and welcome to the forum! That frame shows a very high level of wax moth infestation in this hive. When wax moths get a foothold, it means the colony has already begun to struggle. For the moths to be as well-established as your photo shows, the colony is nearing the end. It may still be possible to salvage, but I’d need more info to guide you best
You mentioned that your bees had been “fighting to stay healthy” this summer - what was the problem and what did you do? I’m curious because whatever was going on will most likely have a bearing on next steps at this point.
Meanwhile, the basic overview of what to do about the moths is to remove and destroy all cocoons and webbing you can find. This takes careful searching through each frame, box, covers, and bottom board as they can be found in corners, under frame lugs, and embedded within combs. I suspect that the bee population is very low by now, so it’s also necessary to reduce the space they’re in to enable them to regain control. Make sure there’s still a queen, and feed them.
Let us know what happened over the summer and whether you find a queen when you do your clean-up! Please don’t hesitate to ask new questions - learning to keep bees successfully is a very intensive process and I can say from personal experience that learning often comes the hard way ![]()

