Hello everyone
I had a very healthy hive when I last inspected the hive, I came back to the hive two weeks later to see the bees were gone. The hive had 4 frames full of honey and covered brood.
When I inspected the hive it was full of white maggots,
Can any help identify what they are and any tips on how I can stop this in the future?
I live in Los Angeles.
Thanks
Andrew
Hi Andrew. Those white maggots look like hive beetle larvae. Try to avoid any getting onto the ground where they will bury into, which is where they complete their life cycle, before emerging as hive beetles.
They obviously took over the hive, which will cause a colony to abscond, on account that hive beetle slime is a bee repellent
I have some helpful tips to help avoid it from happening in the future:
#1. Eliminate large areas of drone brood. Drones do no defending.
#2. Avoid large honey spills onto the brood box. While bees are cleaning up, hive beetles can lay eggs, unchallenged.
#3 Avoid squashing bees between combs. Beetles can lay eggs in squashed bees if the colony can’t remove them in time.
#4. Make sure that every brood frame containing brood or pollen has a good covering of worker bees on them.
#5.Inspect flow frames before harvest, just in case the queen got through the QE (it DOES happen) & started laying eggs. The squashed brood during honey harvest is a magnet for hive beetles to lay eggs in.
In summary: Beetles lay eggs in unprotected (by lots of workers) brood, pollen and dead/dying bees.
Thanks so much Jeff
I appreciate your valuable advice.
Cheers
Andrew