CIRCULAR No. 386 APRIL 1936 



UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 

 WASHINGTON, D. C. 



THE WAX MOTH AND ITS CONTROL 



By Wabken Whitcomb, Jr., associate apioulttirist, Division of Bee Gultitre, 

 Bureau of Entomology and Plant Quarantine 



Page 



EooDomio importance and sources of loss 1 



History and distribution 3 



Life history - 4 



The egg — 4 



Thelarva - -- 4 



The pupa 6 



The adult 7 



CONTENTS 



Page 



Other moths causing damage to stored combs— 3 



Natural control _ 8 



Artificial control _ 9 



Control measures under apiary conditions. 9 



Control measures in stored equipment 9 



Control measures in stored comb honey— _ 12 



The wax moth {Gallena mellonella L.) is known under many 

 names in different sections of the United States. Beekeepers know 

 the insect as the " wax moth ", " bee moth ", " bee miller ", " wax 

 worm ", " web worm ", and " wax miller." It is better known in the 

 larval or worm stage than as the adult or moth and is therefore 

 generally referred to as the " wax worm " or " web worm." 



ECONOMIC IMPORTANCE AND SOURCES OF LOSS 



No careful estimate has ever been made of the damage caused by 

 the wax moth. The losses in Texas were at one time estimated at 

 5 percent, and in 1911 reports from 136 Texas beekeepers placed 

 colony losses at from 5 to 95 percent, according to Texas Agricul- 

 tural Experiment Station Bulletin 231. Losses in the Southern 

 States are considerably higher than in the North because of the 

 longer season of bee and moth activity. Moreover, apiary practices 

 ia the South, esi)ecially that of keeping empty combs on the colonies 

 during Jong, slow honey flows, increase the opportunity for wax moth 

 damage. The complete destruction of colonies, however, does not 

 represent the total of wax moth damage, since combs in supers may 

 be ruined even when the colony is of fair strength. This is partic- 

 ularly true when two or more hive bodies are placed on the colonies 

 during slow flows, or late in the fall for storage. 



Probably the most noticeable loss from wax moth injury is in 

 combs in storage, especially if these combs are in a warm, pro- 

 tected place, and consists in the destruction of the combs by the 

 larvae, which leave them a mass of webs and debris (fig. 1). In 

 the North such losses are more common than the destruction of 

 entire colonies. 



36749°— 36 1 



