At 09:21 PM 1/3/98 -0600, beeman wrote:
>Hi all!! well i have a question,  and NO it's not about organic honey
>(smile) i have always been told that wax worms can't survive cold
>(freezing weather 10-20 deg.) well i was cleaning out some supers and
>hive bodies, when i noticed some wax worms in the wax, how is this
>possible?? here in KY it got very cold, really cold for a couple of
>weeks, how did the wax worms survive????
 
They may be close to death and just have not finished that process yet, or may have just slowed way down, or may have generated enough heat to survive a few weeks of cold by eating pollen and other things found in your combs which can generate a lot of heat in itself.
 
Normally in areas that get cold enough, such as Colorado, the greater wax moth will be killed off in a few years in total. The first year a few will hatch out from eggs but in a year or two they will disappear. The lesser wax moth can survive as eggs and come back strong in the cold winters. In areas that have the greater wax moth the lesser soon takes the back seat as the greater may control them. The old rule that big fish eat little fish in action, as the greater worms, which are bigger eat the little guys and maybe the eggs too. So few California beekeepers have a problem with the lesser wax worm in their bee combs.
 
Now if you collect lots of pollen to make bee diets the picture can change and you can build up some populations of several  other moths that are close to the lesser wax moth if not the same, such as the Indian Head Meal Moth or whatever its called. But you can also build up some very interesting micro wasp parasites that will give some good control on both moths. If beekeepers who collect pollen see these "no see em type" micro wasps they should collect a sample for their local state bug collector and could get their name on one as some have not been identified.. Just make sure they know "who" collected it or someone else's name make get one it.<G>
 
Anyway as one who has transport these moths between two different clime's and reared millions of un-named wasp parasites it has always amazed me to watch the natural population curve on them. Kind of it the same class of magic as the disappearing  Rocky Mountain Bee Glue.
 
ttul, the OLd Drone
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