>What are people seeing with comb in storage, particularly unused brood com?  Even if they cannot multiply much, how much damage can a few beetles do?

Thanks for the excellent responses, bith off list and on.  I hope those who wrote me off-list will also post to the list so all can benefit.

I think I should explain more clearly why I am wondering.  

I think most will recall that I lost 75 strong, heavy colonies in 2 to 5 boxes last fall.   After I use what I need, that leaves me with about 125 brood chambers which are not going to be needed this year.  

These boxes weigh around 60 pounds each, minimum, and have pollen and capped honey in light and dark comb.  Some frames have a few dead pupae, as the bees abandoned, and all that was left was hatching brood in may of them.  Those with the remains of clusters had only about a three or four inch circle of bees in the comb.

I have scraped and stacked this equipment on solid mouse-proof pallets.  The lower auger holes are plugged against mice and each stack has a lid.  My intent is to store them in an open shed.

I have no beekeeping neighbours, but migratory trucks pass within 3.2 miles.  

There is officially no SHB in Alberta, but bees from the lower mainland come to Alberta to pollinate from locations a stone's throw from bee yards in Washington State, and Alberta beekeepers take their bees to winter near the US border.  I have been told personally that an acquaintance has seen SHB in hives in Alberta.  I have not seen them in my travels, however.

Wax moth is never a problem.   We see one now and then, but our winter finishes them off if the bees don't.

Am I likely to have a problem if SHB somehow appears here? 

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