I live aprox. 52 degrees north and have wax moth present but it's never a
problem. We sometimes get winter temp of -40 Celsius ( coldest was in 1985,
in Nov. it got down to -57 F one night) but I think it may be more than the
cold keeping the moth population under control.

  Back in the 90's we had several mild winters and wax moth got established
in some brood chambers I had stored. So one morning in May I set them
underneath strong single colonies as second brood chambers and the bees
began pulling out mats of wax moth webbing and larva. When I came back to
check a few days later there were dozens of strange looking wasps running
around in a very skittish manner on top of the wax moth debris. There were
15 hives in the yard and I would guess each hive had 50 to 75 wasps in
front, maybe more. There was a strong dandelion flow on and the bees were
coming and going while the nervous wasps did their dance on the ground in
front of the hive.

  The wasps looked unusual and I identified them by sight in my insect book
as a Tiphiid wasp, namely Neozeloboria proximus of the Brachycistidinae
family. The females are wingless and look like something from Mars. They
are about 1/4 the size of a honeybee with pink, round heads and short
antenna that have balls on their ends. The males are twice that size and
look more like a wasp should look like. They even have wings. My book says
all Tiphiid wasps attack larvae of one sort or another but adds that "
Brachycistidinae are western and little is known of their immature stages".
( Sounds like something the Canadian prime minister would say )

  So maybe Tom in Nova Scotia will have less of a problem with wax moth, if
the resident population of moth predators has a chance to grow as well.

  I am hoping someone can tell me the life cycle of the wasps I have
described. Since the females were wingless they either flew in and lost
their wings or they were all ready in the brood chambers and I transported
them to the yard. Funny thing is, I've never seen a wasp like them before
or since.

Ted