mystery grub in my langstroth bee hive. pics included

Hellow i love the site, mostly the forums. This is my first post and i have a few questions for the group I have a small grub/mealworm looking larva, that I have found a few of them bellow screen in the pullout tray in my lanstroth hive


does anybody know what this bug is and what I can do to control it, right now I just remove the pullout and dispatch the larvae humainly into my compost

welcome, james.

what you've got there is a wax moth larva. there's really no getting rid of them. fortunately, there's also no real need to get rid of them. as long as your bees are doing well and maintaining population, they'll keep the wax moths in check. if you give them more drawn comb than they're able to patrol, the wax moth population can boom, so be judicious.

dispatching them: got any chickens? compost pile sounds fine. they'll die without bee brood cocoons to eat.

thank you Tel, great info. I'll see if I can return the favor in the future

Aye, looks like wax moth.

As Tel says, a strong colony will control them. Do keep an eye on weaker colonies, where the bees are thin over the frames, as once they get going they can do a lot of damage. This is one good reason to take excess supers off through the winter months so the bees do not need to defend them.

You can kill them by freezing whole supers, or using strong vinegar in a sealed bag with the super, so that your drawn combs are not destroyed while in storage. I've never had a large enough freezer so i've used vinegar (as shown to me by my mentor years ago - i probably wouldn't do it now as i hope to be using top bar hives and perones in future).

Put a whole super in a black plastic bin bag. Put about an inch of strong vinegar in a jam jar with the lid off. Place the jar in the bin bag and seal the bag, ensuring that the vinegar doesn't spill.

Leave it sealed for a few weeks and the fumes will kill most bugs, including the wax moth. Remove the jar of vinegar and reseal it so more moths can't get in. This should protect your drawn wax ready to use again.

I heard of a guy who did this, who sealed up a whole shed nice and tight so he could treat all his boxes at once.

you guys are so kind, thank you for the no toxic control tips


I hope everyone enjoys this fine weekend

regards
James