In a message dated 10/18/98 5:35:08 PM Eastern Daylight Time,
[log in to unmask] writes:
 
> Following your discussion on Wax Moth it does not only go in used brood
>  combs.  I have had a number of virgin cut comb supers badly infested with
>  greater wax moth and have had to melt the comb to extract the honey from
>  them.
>
>  Any thoughts on this?
 
     I would not have said that this never happens, only that it is not
common. The wax worms will sometimes even get into boxes of foundation. But
they will starve on pure wax and/or honey, probably not surviving to maturity.
They need the extra nutrients of brood, old brood comb and pollen.
 
    What probably happened is that there was a lot of moth pressure, some
source of great numbers of adults, such as a dead hive nearby.
 
    They really can mess up comb honey. We try to process ours quickly,
placing ours in jars of liquid honey as cut comb. I wish we had a room sized
freezer to store supers of comb honey, so we could do this year around.
 
[log in to unmask]     Dave Green  Hemingway, SC  USA
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