# What is this on the bottom of my hive? **URL:** \ **Category:** Pests and Diseases\ **Created:** [December 7, 2016, 3:34am UTC](https://forum.honeyflow.com/t/what-is-this-on-the-bottom-of-my-hive/9426 "2016-12-07T03:34:43Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![edmondo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5f9b8f/32.png) [@edmondo](https://forum.honeyflow.com/u/edmondo)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2016, 3:34am UTC](https://forum.honeyflow.com/t/what-is-this-on-the-bottom-of-my-hive/9426/1 "2016-12-07T03:34:44Z")
Hi All, I have noticed some small dark brown or black dropping on the bottom of my flow hive. Can anyone help identify what it is ? These only appeared in the last week or so… ![](https://cdck-file-uploads-us1.s3.dualstack.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/flex016/uploads/honeyflow/original/2X/b/b0bdf68416c9f9b77f660ad3ebbcb4c1a1abd26f.jpeg) ![](https://cdck-file-uploads-us1.s3.dualstack.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/flex016/uploads/honeyflow/original/2X/0/090131c3b403d13b0a8176f3502841c74e909439.jpeg) ---
**Author:** ![RBK](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/forum.honeyflow.com/rbk/32/4134_2.png) [@RBK](https://forum.honeyflow.com/u/RBK)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2016, 3:40am UTC](https://forum.honeyflow.com/t/what-is-this-on-the-bottom-of-my-hive/9426/2 "2016-12-07T03:40:25Z")
Are they hard? Look like chalk mummies but hard to tell by the photo. ---
**Author:** ![edmondo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5f9b8f/32.png) [@edmondo](https://forum.honeyflow.com/u/edmondo)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2016, 4:01am UTC](https://forum.honeyflow.com/t/what-is-this-on-the-bottom-of-my-hive/9426/3 "2016-12-07T04:01:08Z")
yes, they are hard… sorry the iphone camera is not great for close ups ---
**Author:** ![Dawn\_SD](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/forum.honeyflow.com/dawn_sd/32/15954_2.png) [@Dawn\_SD](https://forum.honeyflow.com/u/Dawn_SD)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2016, 4:04am UTC](https://forum.honeyflow.com/t/what-is-this-on-the-bottom-of-my-hive/9426/4 "2016-12-07T04:04:00Z")
Looks like wax moth poo to me. > **[Wax moth feces? Can someone confirm?](https://beemaster.com/forum/index.php?topic=44097.0)** > > Wax moth feces? Can someone confirm? 😊 ---
**Author:** ![edmondo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5f9b8f/32.png) [@edmondo](https://forum.honeyflow.com/u/edmondo)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2016, 4:49am UTC](https://forum.honeyflow.com/t/what-is-this-on-the-bottom-of-my-hive/9426/5 "2016-12-07T04:49:16Z")
i don’t seem to have the light coloured dropping like the ones in the link … mine are just dark brown/black and hard. they look like Cockroach dropping. ---
**Author:** ![Dawn\_SD](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/forum.honeyflow.com/dawn_sd/32/15954_2.png) [@Dawn\_SD](https://forum.honeyflow.com/u/Dawn_SD)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2016, 5:38am UTC](https://forum.honeyflow.com/t/what-is-this-on-the-bottom-of-my-hive/9426/6 "2016-12-07T05:38:12Z")
> [@edmondo](#): > > they look like Cockroach dropping They could be. Wax moth droppings can be all dark too, depends on what they are eating. ---
**Author:** ![edmondo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5f9b8f/32.png) [@edmondo](https://forum.honeyflow.com/u/edmondo)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2016, 7:36am UTC](https://forum.honeyflow.com/t/what-is-this-on-the-bottom-of-my-hive/9426/7 "2016-12-07T07:36:57Z")
i need to google what wax moth looks like so i can look for it tomorrow when i inspect the hive. ---
**Author:** ![Michael\_Bush](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/forum.honeyflow.com/michael_bush/32/1024_2.png) [@Michael\_Bush](https://forum.honeyflow.com/u/Michael_Bush)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2016, 2:38pm UTC](https://forum.honeyflow.com/t/what-is-this-on-the-bottom-of-my-hive/9426/8 "2016-12-07T14:38:37Z")
How big are they? Something for scale (a quarter, a dime, a finger?) would help. I think they look like mouse feces. ---
**Author:** ![edmondo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5f9b8f/32.png) [@edmondo](https://forum.honeyflow.com/u/edmondo)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2016, 9:32pm UTC](https://forum.honeyflow.com/t/what-is-this-on-the-bottom-of-my-hive/9426/9 "2016-12-07T21:32:28Z")
Hi @Michael_Bush it’s about 3mm ![](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/uploads/honeyflow/original/2X/e/e6fe2893655fbbf569d21f508fd045df0600c2b0.jpeg) ---
**Author:** ![Dawn\_SD](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/forum.honeyflow.com/dawn_sd/32/15954_2.png) [@Dawn\_SD](https://forum.honeyflow.com/u/Dawn_SD)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2016, 9:40pm UTC](https://forum.honeyflow.com/t/what-is-this-on-the-bottom-of-my-hive/9426/10 "2016-12-07T21:40:21Z")
I stick with wax moth. Mouse poop is bigger - I worked with mice for decades… 😜 ---
**Author:** ![RBK](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/forum.honeyflow.com/rbk/32/4134_2.png) [@RBK](https://forum.honeyflow.com/u/RBK)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2016, 10:48pm UTC](https://forum.honeyflow.com/t/what-is-this-on-the-bottom-of-my-hive/9426/11 "2016-12-07T22:48:34Z")
Too small for chalk, I had the scale of the original photo way off! ---
**Author:** ![Dawn\_SD](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/forum.honeyflow.com/dawn_sd/32/15954_2.png) [@Dawn\_SD](https://forum.honeyflow.com/u/Dawn_SD)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2016, 12:56am UTC](https://forum.honeyflow.com/t/what-is-this-on-the-bottom-of-my-hive/9426/12 "2016-12-08T00:56:52Z")
The cloths looked like old style J-cloths to me, with stripes I was assuming 2-3mm wide. So I thought wax moth poop was the closest in size and shape. 😊 ---
**Author:** ![Kristinahoney](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/a9a28c/32.png) [@Kristinahoney](https://forum.honeyflow.com/u/Kristinahoney)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2016, 3:32am UTC](https://forum.honeyflow.com/t/what-is-this-on-the-bottom-of-my-hive/9426/13 "2016-12-08T03:32:38Z")
The thing to do, of course, is to look in the hive. I vote for mouse or roach poop. Too small maybe for _Mus musculus_, the common European/worldwide/house/lab mouse, but I’ll bet there are other small rodent-oid marsupials there. You’re in NSW, right? They could also be from the “American” cockroach, very common worldwide. They don’t look like any kind of lepidopteran poop to me. Have fun with your mystery! Cheers, Kristina Boulder, CO, USA ---
**Author:** ![Michael\_Bush](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/forum.honeyflow.com/michael_bush/32/1024_2.png) [@Michael\_Bush](https://forum.honeyflow.com/u/Michael_Bush)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2016, 12:06pm UTC](https://forum.honeyflow.com/t/what-is-this-on-the-bottom-of-my-hive/9426/14 "2016-12-08T12:06:10Z")
Yes, looks small for mouse feces. Probably wax moth feces. ---
**Author:** ![edmondo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5f9b8f/32.png) [@edmondo](https://forum.honeyflow.com/u/edmondo)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2016, 12:29am UTC](https://forum.honeyflow.com/t/what-is-this-on-the-bottom-of-my-hive/9426/15 "2016-12-09T00:29:59Z")
this is a 6 week old hive from a package still on a single brood box, any suggestion on how to deal with wax moth on such newish hive ? The bees are very busy hauling in the pollen and there is good solid brood pattern and stores of nectar. but not all frames are build frame 7 and 8 are maybe at 50% build. ---
**Author:** ![Dawn\_SD](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/forum.honeyflow.com/dawn_sd/32/15954_2.png) [@Dawn\_SD](https://forum.honeyflow.com/u/Dawn_SD)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2016, 1:56am UTC](https://forum.honeyflow.com/t/what-is-this-on-the-bottom-of-my-hive/9426/16 "2016-12-09T01:56:28Z")
> [@edmondo](#): > > 6 week old hive from a package still on a single brood box, any suggestion on how to deal with wax moth on such newish hive ? Wax moths are a fact of life. You can’t remove them or kill them. Just don’t give the bees too much space to defend and they will do fine. In other words, don’t add another box until the existing one has all frames with fully drawn comb, 80% full of brood or food and every frame is well-covered with bees. When you keep a hive like that, the bees deal with the wax moths before they become a problem. ---
**Author:** ![JeffH](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/forum.honeyflow.com/jeffh/32/7192_2.png) [@JeffH](https://forum.honeyflow.com/u/JeffH)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2016, 3:49am UTC](https://forum.honeyflow.com/t/what-is-this-on-the-bottom-of-my-hive/9426/17 "2016-12-09T03:49:43Z")
There is one possibility. Geckos like hanging around beehives, in fact someone told be that he saw geckos feeding on SHBs as they arrived into his hives just before dark. Large cockroaches wouldn’t be out of the question either. I think the droppings are too large to be wax moth. ---
**Author:** ![Thebeelady](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/forum.honeyflow.com/thebeelady/32/1304_2.png) [@Thebeelady](https://forum.honeyflow.com/u/Thebeelady)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2016, 5:32am UTC](https://forum.honeyflow.com/t/what-is-this-on-the-bottom-of-my-hive/9426/18 "2016-12-13T05:32:44Z")
They are chalkbrood mummies, the spore forming variety, dispose of carefully as they will spread chalkbrood. ---
**Author:** ![Michael\_Bush](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/forum.honeyflow.com/michael_bush/32/1024_2.png) [@Michael\_Bush](https://forum.honeyflow.com/u/Michael_Bush)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2016, 1:13pm UTC](https://forum.honeyflow.com/t/what-is-this-on-the-bottom-of-my-hive/9426/19 "2016-12-13T13:13:08Z")
Chalkbrood mummies are more like 6mm or more long. Those are less than 3mm… just not big enough for chalkbrood mummies. ![](https://cdck-file-uploads-us1.s3.dualstack.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/flex016/uploads/honeyflow/original/2X/b/b6b0426cd8de7945513a454885e908b51cdd433f.jpg) ---
**Author:** ![BeeHave2](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/forum.honeyflow.com/beehave2/32/5155_2.png) [@BeeHave2](https://forum.honeyflow.com/u/BeeHave2)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2016, 7:14pm UTC](https://forum.honeyflow.com/t/what-is-this-on-the-bottom-of-my-hive/9426/20 "2016-12-13T19:14:31Z")
mice droppings, need to protect entrance with guard entrance. [Next page](https://forum.honeyflow.com/t/what-is-this-on-the-bottom-of-my-hive/9426.md?page=2)