White larva in harvested honey

Hey everyone, iv harvested the hive today and come across some white larvae in one of my honey buckets (I counted 8 altogether). Wondering if anyone with a bit more experience could identify them as I’m not sure if they are shb, wax moth or some other form of larva. Also wondering what the typical procedure is for the honey that has had the larva in it (hoping I don’t have to bin it). Regarding the hive it seems to be fairly healthy at the moment, lots of traffic as there seems to be a flow on. Any thoughts and advice would be appreciated, cheers

I’m betting they’re SHB, not too clear in the photo but they appear to have brown spines along their back.

Not a close up enough photo for me to be sure and I won’t take a wild guess. You can always filter your honey thru a double mesh strainer to remove everything from the honey. I do that with all my honey regardless if it comes from a Flow Hive, a Langstroth or a poly hive. My customers want 100% clean honey so that is what they get, No wax and no larvae or bugs.
Cheers

Google small hive beetle larvae pics :+1:.

Filter the honey and it’ll be fine :ok_hand:

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Would it make sense to also freeze the honey overnight? Thinking of tiny eggs that could be in there if larvae already is.

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I don’t think they would ever hatch given the hydroscopic nature of honey.

Thanks for the replies, i ended up putting the honey that had the larva in it in marked jars that I’ll just use myself. Bit worrying that more could hatch, I’ll need to keep an eye on any jars I open and maybe buy a very fine mesh for the next harvest (only used a sieve until now). I suppose I’ll need to inspect the frames closer next harvest as I didn’t see any larva on the frames last week.

Cheers

Any bee gear shop can supply you with a purpose made double honey filter with two filters that fit one inside the other and the finer of the meshes has a frame to sit on top of a honey pail. Even the courser of the meshes is finer than a kitchen sieve. You will also find them for under $30 on Ebay.
I doubt that eggs suspended in honey would hatch.
Cheers Sean

I opened a container of comb honey one time to find it wriggling with larvae. So awful! I suppose the eggs stayed viable on the wax. I freeze all my comb honey before using or selling it now.

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Did you figure out what the grubs were Eva, was there SHB or wax moth in the hive?
Cheers

I believe they were wax moth Pete. I admit, at that time I didn’t take a close look on the way to the “wheelie bin” :smile: - but later I remembered seeing wax moth poo on the coreflute.

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