Amazing that I am in Canada on a 10 day hiking trip and can still post to the blog. This is thanks to the Internet and wireless service at my hotel.Before I left I opened the dead hives to clean them up. In the first hive Proteus, I found wax moth mess throughout. I scraped moth cocoons and killed larvae by smashing it with my feet and with my hive tool. I threw most of the wax mess over the deck to the ground below and then left the frames leaning against an oak tree for the chipmunk to snack on as they are prone to do.
Then I opened Proteus Bee - roaches ran out of the hive and there was wax moth damage throughout. I took the hive apart and when I got to the solid part of the slatted rack just above the SBB, there were these nasty larvae. I think they must be roach larvae since they are not cocooned and were in this pile in the corner. I dumped them on the deck and smashed and stomped on all of them.
Amazing what housekeepers a good beehive contains. This damage is the result of creatures taking over when there are no bees to maintain the cleanliness of the hive.
Yuck!
Linda, the larva in your picture is/are Small Hive Beetle larva. I saw them myself earlier this year when I lost my package. I saved a few to show a local beekeeper, and he told me what they were/are.
ReplyDeleteHe said as long as there are no bees, the SHB will lay its eggs and the larva will grown in the hive until is time to get out and turn into its adult shape.
I know, they seem to big to be SHB. At 1st I though they were magots.
Maybe, but I thought SHB pupated in the ground and my hives are on a wooden deck 14 feet above the ground.....
ReplyDeleteLinda,
ReplyDeleteMaybe Nematodes could help control the Wax Moth and SHB problem you have. They must be in the ground around your deck.
Try arbico-organics.com
and see what they have/say.
Love your site, I'm learning much from your experiences!
Jamie
I know, I know. I still find it hard to believe myself. How can the end result be an insect 3 times smaller than the larva? My source was a 30 years experiance beekeeper, with over 100 hives on his property. Your picture looks like my hive did in mid July. Mine was bone dry of honey, the wax was melting from the Florida heat, maybe a dozen bees that had been born after everyone else left, and these things were crawling all over. Today I still would guess they are magots. Check out the last picture on this site, is a close up of the larva.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.ento.vt.edu/~fell/apiculture/hivebeetle/index.html
I have a friend that got his bees from the same guy I did, I think he saw his 1st SHB lastweek in his hive. Myself !!!! Check out my last picture !!!!
Every 4 days for a month, I'll empty my trap this full. Luckely the bait seems to work real well, and they are not in the hive ... For now anyway
http://beeanonymous.blogspot.com/2007/09/good-inspection-day.html
Good luck
Ben burada proje yaparken siz tesisi kurmuşunuz,hayırlı olsun.::))) ne zamanda duydunuz.Demekki dünyada çok asistan var daha.
ReplyDelete