# I think I'm done...wax moths



## GunMonkeyIntl (May 13, 2013)

This is so depressing. 
I went away for two weeks, leaving two nice, strong colonies behind. 
Came back to see very little activity on the entrance board and went in to do an inspection the next day- completely wrecked. Every frame. Honey pouring down through the hive. Very few bees. 

I would occasionally scrape some larva and kill the occasional adult on the slide out bottom board, but something, over the last two weeks, like flicking on a light switch, took out both of my colonies. 

I think I might be done with these things.


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## RonTgottagoat (Feb 27, 2014)

I feel your pain. The exact same thing happened to me about a month ago!!! It seems like the moths are a sign of colony collapse. I just got a new 5 frame nuc last week. The man I bought em from said he's been keeping bees since '61. And told me it happens usually not due to something the keeper does. He also told me NOT to feed sugar syrup. He compared it to if your daughter was overweight feeding her donuts everyday for breakfast then wondering why she became diabetic. Anyhow I sulked for about three weeks but got over it and started a new colony. Fingers crossed this one stays


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## GunMonkeyIntl (May 13, 2013)

So, the wife and I haired up and tried to save them. 
As I sat on the back porch depressing over it, I realized that, oddly, it was mostly the honey stores that were wrecked, and the few brood frames that were there were mainly good. 

So, as a last ditch effort, we chose the 10 best frames from each, cut out anything that looked like it might be infested, and built each a new box. Then we got the queens and as many bees as we could into the new box, removed the top entrance inner covers (which may have been part of the problem, according to some), and put the feeders on. 

I'm going to treat them like late packages that I had a few frames of brood to donate to, and see if I can't nurse them back. 

The rest of the frames were sorted into freeze and burn bags, according to their condition. I'm not really hopeful, but have nothing to lose, and at least felt like I'd sleep easier tonight knowing that I tried to save them.


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## RonTgottagoat (Feb 27, 2014)

Good luck by the time i found mine it was too late I shook bees into a nuc box they lasted a couple weeks but dwindled. But I had to try. But after sulking a couple weeks I'm better. In fact karma was on my side cause I found about 12# of chanterelles that I sold to a couple restaurants which funded my new hive . I just hope it does good. I put it in a brand new hive I had bought in anticipation of expansion


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## Terri (May 10, 2002)

After you freeze the damaged honey combs, why don't you bring them back to room temperature and then put give them back to the bees so they can clean out the remaining honey? Honey is a more healthy feed than sugar syrup. 

As soon as most of the brood hatches out of the brood combs I would freeze them also, to kill the moth larvae. It would be better to loose a tiny amount of later hatching brood than to allow large amounts of moths to hatch in the hive and undo your hard work.

Years ago I was able to save a couple of infested hives: I rotated all of the combs through the freezer. It was amazing how many tiny larvae were in the combs that did not look badly infested. I also used some of the bees and some once-frozen combs of honey to make up nucs, in case what I was doing did not work.


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## Terri (May 10, 2002)

RoTgottagoat I respectfully disagree with not feeding sugar syrup to new bees. They have a great many combs to draw out ASAP, which takes a great deal of calories, and junk food (aka sugar syrup) is better than not enough calories to get the job done!

IMHO 

Feeding sugar syrup to a NEW hive is like giving your SKINNY daughter doughnuts, not your fat daughter! Of course once your daughter has some stores built up, honey is healthier.


By the way, watch out for "blackberry winter". Out here, after the blackberries are finished blooming, there is often a few weeks when nothing much blooms and your hive may get low on stores during that time. Where I live we sometimes have to feed the hives during this time so that the hive stays strong. 

The local bees will raise less brood if they have less stores, and yet the hives need a lot of bees if they are going to work the Fall flowers and be able to make enough honey to see them through a Midwest winter. 

Some new hives will simply stop taking the syrup once they have plenty of nectar: use your own judgment as not every hive is the same. My own preference is when in doubt, feed. I hear the old-time beekeeper would simply lift one end of a hive and think "light", or "heavy" (meaning much honey was stored), but because I am small and female I am not going to go around lifting one end of the hives: I have to open them up and check!


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## GunMonkeyIntl (May 13, 2013)

I really appreciate the vote of hope, slim as it may be. 
That's an excellent idea about the frozen food frames. I'm leaving for work, but will be back in just a couple days. That will put those frames in the freezer for four days, and should be plenty to kill them off. 

In rebuilding, I had a couple empty frames I would swap them out for, and they each have a couple frames of fresh comb that was just being worked up, so they, hopefully, have something to work new brood into. That'll let me swap out the existing brood frames, once I know the queen has taken to the fresh comb. 

I really don't have high hopes, but I at least feel better than when I had given up and was just going to destroy them. There's bound to be some lessons learned in trying to save a colony from a moth infestation. Might as well take advantage of the "opportunity" when it is thrust upon you, right?


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## Terri (May 10, 2002)

Those "partially worked" frames might have moth eggs in them also. Personally I would have frozen them for a day before I gave them to the bees.

Well, it either will or will not work.


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## RonTgottagoat (Feb 27, 2014)

That was what the man I bought my new bees said. Personally I don't really know but he said we are in the middle of a honey flow and not to feed em. My nuc last year weren't fed and built up nicely I began feeding this spring and lost my hive and the swarm I thought I had successfully caught. It all went south on me over two weeks. Not sure why but I plan on doing what the man said. Hopefully this one works out better


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## CollieFlowerWV (Jun 28, 2010)

This happened to me last year. I did as Terri said. I froze the honey frames and put them back in. The only frames I didn't freeze were the ones with brood. I left them and then my hive was fine. I lost one hive, but that one was too far gone. I was glad I went to the trouble to do it. I was able to divide the hive this year and now I've got back to two hives again. But I did lose my queen so I just bought one today to replace the old one. It's trial and error. Good Luck.


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## Iddee (Sep 25, 2005)

Freeze them, spray them, reuse them. Don't waste them if not webbed up too bad.

http://www.outyard.net/wax-moth.html

BT should be sprayed on all your frames and comb. Even occupied brood and honey frames and comb. It is harmless to bees and humans, but deathly to wax moth larva.


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## GunMonkeyIntl (May 13, 2013)

Well, I held them almost a month by freezing and swapping frames, but, in the end I lost them both. Thankfully, they absconded, rather than staying put and dying of attrition. I was on the road and the wife noticed one swarming up and they were gone by the time she got home. The other one went a couple days later. 

One thing is sure; for the swarms and absconded colonies, my property has a much better pollinator population than when we moved in. Every flowering thing on our property, and our pool, is buzzing, so that's worth something, right?

I'm going to do some housekeeping on my equipment, and put some more in next year. I figure that, with the lessons I've learned this year and last, it would be a shame not to put it all to use next year. So, it's a set-back, but not the end.


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## Terri (May 10, 2002)

I am sorry to hear that! 

With luck they have found a hollow tree on your property.


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