Wax moths larvae on my top frame

Any advice on what to do? I only have one hive and a spare hive. I saw them on the top frame and burned them. Should I just let it be or do I need to do anything/can I?

You don’t have to be concerned about the odd wax moth larvae. Just remove them when you see them. If you have a flow2, I’d suggest to clean the tray out once a fortnight, because wax moths are attracted to the stuff that accumulates in there.

cheers

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This should be applied to the Flow Hive Classic core flute slider tray too :+1:

Keep in mind that keeping a strong hive, particularly in numbers, is your best defence against pests such as wax moth.

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How’s your colony doing overall, Nathan? Wax moths will get a good foothold if the bees are weak or low in numbers. Otherwise Jeff is right, there might be a random one here or there and you can squash it and not worry about it. As he and Bianca say, do clean out your lower tray or slider.

I would just add to check corners and crevices for cocoons and look at the comb faces for webs and feces. If you do see this, you can transfer your colony to clean equipment and feed them awhile until they regain strength. Wax moth-infested colonies divert workers from regular duties to the effort of containment.

It just swarmed. I’ll do an inspection and see how the bees are doing and how it looks inside. I was thinking about splitting the hive so I’d have a second one so they don’t just keep swarming. We’ll see!

Yes, good idea - with the larvae you saw on top of the frames I am wondering if this was a swarm, or if they actually might have absconded because of infestation. The difference being that swarming is healthy reproduction behavior, and absconding is more of an emergency exit. Let us know what you find when you check the hive.

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