Wax Moths?

[Wandering Man]

I've been worried about my Pine Hive ever since I got it.  It started off small, and has stayed small.

For the last several months, I've been suspicious of wax moths.  But I've yet to see anything other than droppings that might be theirs in my Freeman board.  A couple of days ago, I spotted several really small larvae floating around in the soapy water.  Maybe 1/2 inch long and not fat.  It's possible that with my eyesight it is not larvae.  But I decided to dig all the way down to the bottom of the hive.

I didn't spot any signs of wax moths.  But maybe I don't know what to look for when the infestation is small.  There were no webs or active larvae crawling around in the frames.

What I had was two frames in the upper deep with brood and 5 frames of brood in the lower deep.  The pattern was really spotty.  The frames were probably 25% to 50% full.

The bees do not seem to like the left side of the hive (left when facing the entrance), which is also the side that gets more shade.  All of the brood and all of the honey/pollen filled frames were on the right 2/3 of the hive.  There were a lot of bees hanging out on the inside right wall of the hive.

The queen was there, although I'm not sure if she was actually laying.  I saw some larvae in cells, but my eyes have never been able to detect eggs, so I don't know about them.

There was some empty comb in the second deep that was dark brown, but empty.  So I assume they had used that before and it has now been cleaned out.

I have a medium super that I was hoping the ladies would fill for me.  There is one or two frames with comb, but mostly I think the bees use that as a supply station to get more wax. 

I saw no hive beetles in the hive, but they could be hiding somewhere.  I rarely get a hive beetle in my bottom board.

[brooksbeefarm]

Wax moth larva is soft and easy to mash, SHB larva is more yellow looking and rubber feeling and harder to mash. Jack

[Nugget Shooter]

And the larva hate light freaking out when in the sun. The webbing is a dead giveaway and I see occasional wax moths in my covers and a larva or two in the SBB that I toss on the hot ground for the ants to deal with or the many lizards that patrol under the hives for toss out bees etc. The wax moths are kept at bay by the bees as long as the hives are healthy and the larva are driven into the slight safety of the SBB, until my weekly bottom board inspection that is.... Unless there are large numbers they do not seem to be much of a problem, but if they show up in force in a hive often there is another issue making the hive weak enough for them to get a grip.

[J-grow]

If you have a drawn out frame that has a 4" x 2" section that has been damaged by wax moth and has some webbing do you need to throw out that foundation and comb?

Or can you freeze it to kill the moths and just scrape out the bad section and give it back to the bees when you need it?

[iddee]

"Or can you freeze it to kill the moths and just scrape out the bad section and give it back to the bees when you need it?"

YES

[J-grow]

Thank you!

[efmesch]

Back to wax moths:
If it's not too troublesome to get to the floor and you can clear away  the collection of cappings and other "waste" that tends to accumulate around the edges, examine it for larvae.  It's a dead giveaway for a potential infestation.  When the colony is strong enough to fight against the wax moths, the bees attack them on the frames and they escape by falling to the floor.  There they continue to develop, hiding in the cappings and feeding on them.  If you keep your floors clean, you reduce the likelihood of an infestation developing in hiding, right under your nose.