Vol. LVI.— No. 12 



HAMILTON, ILL, DECEMBER, 1916 



MONTHLY, $1.00 A YEAR 



HABITS OF THE WAXMOTH 



Facts About the Pest Which is Most Feared by the Beginner and 

 Most Easily Controlled by the Expert Beekeeper 



How often it happens that the thing 

 which we most fear when viewed 

 from a distance proves to be the 

 source of little anxiety on closer ac- 

 quaintance ! It is just so with the wax- 

 moth. It seems to be the pest which is 

 most feared by the beginner and the 

 novice, and which is most easily con- 

 trolled by the expert beekeeper. In the 

 four years which the writer has spent 

 as a bee-inspector, he has visited doz- 

 ens of apiaries where the bees receive 

 no attention further than- to put on 

 supers in spring and to remove them 

 in the fall. Such apiaries are subject 

 to all the vicissitudes of short stores, 

 queenlessness, disease, poor wintering, 

 and the hundred other things that may 

 befall neglected bees. When the bees 

 die from any cause, the waxmoth 

 enters the hive, as a matter of course, 

 and shortly the combs are destroyed. 

 The unfortunate owner then charges all 

 his loss to the moth. Time and time 

 again has the writer been told of losses 

 from this cause, often the last colony 

 having been removed, disgracing its 

 careless owner, who is entirely un- 

 worthy to be called a beekeeper. 



The presence of waxmoths indicates 

 one of two things, either carelessness 

 or ignorance on the part of the bee- 

 keeper. The best beekeepers at times 

 find moths in a weak colony which has 

 been overlooked in the rush of the 

 season, or possibly in a super of ex- 

 tracting combs which have remained 

 unprotected for too long a time. This 

 can be charged to carelessness. The 

 novice often fails to recognize the 

 symptoms of queenlessness, disease or 

 other abnormal conditions until the 

 colony has become weakened to the 

 point where the moths take possession, 

 hence he lays all the trouble to the 

 moths, when the moths are an indica- 

 tion of some disorder which was pres- 

 ent previous to their coming, rather 

 than the real cause of the disaster to 

 the bees. In short, the presence of 

 waxmoths is an indication of poor 

 beekeeping. 



LIFE HISTORY OF THE PEST. 



Figure 1 shows the adult moth, life 

 size. As will be seen by the picture, 

 it is a grayish moth or miller with little 

 to distinguish it from hundreds of 

 other moths, whose larval stages are 

 very different. 



Moths, in common with butterflies, 

 beetles, bees and many other insects, 

 pass through four stages in completing 

 their development, or what is called 

 the complete metamorphosis. The first 

 stage is the egg. The second stage is 

 the larva, and it is during this stage 

 that the damage is done to the combs 

 within the hive. The third stage is the 

 pupa which is passed within the co- 

 coons shown at Fig. 4. The fourth 

 and last stage is the mature moth, 

 shown at Fig. 1. 



The moths are quiet during the day 

 and fly at night. The female will slip 

 into the entrance of the hive, or any 

 crevice that chances to be open. The 

 eggs are laid in crevices about the hive, 



Fig, I.— Adult Wa.\moth 



behind the division-boards or other 

 out of the way corners, where the 

 newly hatched larvae will find easy 

 access to the combs. The mother 

 moth seeks a protected situation for 

 her eggs, and glues them firmly to their 

 resting place. A single moth will lay 

 hundreds of eggs, extending over a 

 period of a week or more. When first 

 hatched the larvae are very small and 

 white. They burrow at once into the 

 combs and, as they increase in size, will 

 make such tunnels through the combs 

 as are shown at Fig. 2. 



Probably hundreds of eggs are laid 

 in nearly every beehive in the temper- 

 ate regions of North America every 

 summer, yet the finding of a well grown 

 moth larva in a strong colony is not 

 common. The bees either remove the 

 eggs, or drive out the worms shortly 

 after they are hatched. The moths are 

 so very prolific that when they get a 

 start, the colony is doomed, since the 

 bees are unable to remove them from 

 their webs, once they become estab- 

 lished. The moths feed as much on 

 the pollen stored in the cells as on the 

 wax from which the combs are built. 

 New extracting combs that have never 

 been occupied for brood-rearing are 

 not very attractive to them, and will 

 not be destroyed as long as old combs 

 are within reach. 



Figure 3 shows the larvae, which are 

 repulsive white caterpillars, in their 

 burrows in the combs. The length of 

 time required to complete the larval 

 growth varies from 35 to 45 days de- 

 pending upon weather conditions or 

 season, according to Prof. Paddock 

 who has studied the habits of the in- 

 sects closely. The larvae are about an 

 inch in length when they reach matur- 

 ity and are ready for spinning the 

 cocoons. 



Figure 4 shows a mass of the co- 

 coons along a top-bar. The cocoons 

 are fastened in masses between the top- 

 bars, under the cover, or in any easily 

 reached situation which offers suitable 

 frotection. li warm weather the 



