Pest-infested bee hive threatens colony health

The state apiarist stopped by the farm yesterday. The prognosis: It's going to take some work to get these bees on the path to health.

A waxy moth larvae (upper left), remaining honey bees stealing honey from the invested hive ( right), and stragglers picking through the debris left by waxy moths and hive beetles.

And here's why. There's an infestation of wax moths and hive beetles. They've killed at least one adjacent abandoned hive and may be working their way toward the last one.

As you can see, the dead hive is a hot mess. It's filled with insect eggs, larvae, and debris, along with bees and ants robbing the hive for its honey.

Wax moths spell disaster for honey bees. The moths enter the hive at night and lay their eggs. A healthy hive can expel the eggs. A weak one, however, will be overrun. The eggs hatch, then the larvae decimate the hive, eating the honey, pollen, wax and bee brood.  The hive then dies since the queen can't produce new workers.

Hive beetles attack in much the same way wax moths do. The beetles lay eggs inside the hive, and their larvae eat their way through cells of honey comb. The honey ferments, rots, and then the bees abandon the hive.

Wax moth eggs infest an abandoned beehive.

It's unclear which happened first, the wax moths or the hive beetles. We also don't know how healthy the remaining bees are. We can hear them buzzing, and there seems to be a lot of hive activity, but the covers were glued so tightly with honey we couldn't open it. The hive may be healthy. It may have the beginnings of infestation. We just don't know yet.

What we do know is that finding both these pests poses a serious risk to the remaining hive's health and to any other bee hives nearby. But we can do a couple of things to improve the leftover hive's chances of survival.

Removing the infestation.

One thing will be to move the active hive to a different location.  The state apiarist suggested moving the bees to a sunny location, where moths will be discouraged from hanging around the hive. That hive will also have its lid pried opened so its health can be checked.  Guess that means we're going to have to invest in bee gear a little sooner than anticipated.


Another's pretty obvious--clean out the infestation. Now that's going to be a nasty job. Hive beetles and wax moths leave a sticky residue plus feces, pupae casings...nasty.  But we're on it. The infested hive's been disassembled and left to sit in the sun to kill some of the pests' larvae. Then we'll have to remove any remaining honey, clean the box and frames, and then heat or freeze the box and frames. That last step will kill any eggs left in crevices.

So that's the scoop on the bees. It's not a good situation, but if we're able to get things turned around, these little workers should become a healthy, thriving colony. Keep your fingers crossed it all works!