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Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology

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Fri, 25 Sep 2015 08:48:22 -0400
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Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology <[log in to unmask]>
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Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology <[log in to unmask]>
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A Mr Benchley snip...
Whuich wax moth are you thinking of? Where I am (Birmingham UK), lesser wax 
 moth is endemic, and I wouldn't doubt for a moment that it overwinters. 
But  greater wax moth is largely found further south, and while it appears  
occasionally, it shows no evidence of overwintering at all.  

my response..
at least according to my very dated abc/xyz it is not uncommon for the two species to be mistaken where by limited nutrition will make a greater wax moth look much like the lesser.  if you follow the thinking of one of my former commercial beekeeping mentors comb is a commercial beekeeper capital and therefore wax moth for a southern located beekeeper is their long term biggest concern (yes likely even larger that varroa).  one would suspect if global warming is a fact then this problem will quickly move northward.

in the modern context science is often about making some probability statement concerning a statement or question.   therefore if you asked any scientist about the potential of a wax moth living at some northern location over the winter anyone wishing to be accurate might say 'with a 99% level of confidence I would say that wax moth can not survive the winter at that location'...  even muttering that you are 100% certain 'wax moth will not survive' would to my way of thinking make your credential appear suspect.  Also at least to my way of thinking and experience a phd at the end of your name does not mean ideas are accepted without question.... there is certainly a lot of bogus phd out there and the evidence suggest to me more and more every day.

as to migration of wax moth north.... some years ago my wife was involved in a project involving bats.  she had several students both form the US and Mexico that studied bats and during the time they found that moths that were tagged in the Rio Grande Valley fairly quickly found their way up to Austin (if ever in Austin the largest tourist event is the bats coming and going from the 6th Street Bridge).  it was presumed that the moth flew up to some significant altitude and were pretty quickly moved northward by high upper altitude winds..... as they fell out of the wind at or near Austin the bats found them to be a pretty good meal.   

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