In a message dated 9/5/98 7:34:20 PM Eastern Daylight Time,
[log in to unmask] writes:
 
I asked:
>     Why do you need PDB anyway?  If you store them in unheated storage, the
>  wax moth activity will be nearly zero, unless you bring in a badly infested
>  super with plenty of webbing already in place to insulate the wax moth
>  larvae.
>
>      Wax moths are only a problem when comb is stored in the warm season, or
>  in
>  heated storage areas.  Now mice are a different story, at least in my
>  storage
>  sheds.......
>
>  [Rod Rupert answered]  Because I need to medicate now with both apistan and
menthol,
>  so I need to take the supers off.  It is 95 degrees today and the really
>  cold weather doesn't set in for another two months.
 
   Okay, try this. (I'm in the south too -- the middle of wax moth's favorite
country!)  Store the supers on edge, with the frames vertical. Space an inch
or so between each super, so the air can get to them. I have a few supers in
the (hot) warehouse that have not been on this season at all. They do have a
few moths in them, but their effect is minimal. If I had put them in regular
stacks, they probably would be a lot worse.
 
    Wax moths like heat, brood comb, pollen, closed up areas. They don't like
open air, and they are much less apt to get into supers than brood comb. If I
have a deadout during the summer, the wax moths will totally destroy the brood
comb in a couple weeks. But they are after pollen and dead brood. Oftentimes I
can salvage the supers.
 
    Check them every couple weeks. If you start to see damage, put them back
on the bees. But I bet it won't be very much. There's not enough time left in
the season.
 
[log in to unmask]     Dave Green  Hemingway, SC  USA
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