2 CIRCULAR 3 8 6, 17. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 



The larvae of the wax moth cause a considerable amount of dam- 

 age each year to comb honey. The eggs of the wax moth are prob- 

 ably laid on the comb or section boxes before the comb-honey supers 

 are removed from the hives, but the damage usually occurs some 

 time after the honey has been placed in storage. The damage con- 

 sists of small, rather inconspicuous tunnels and borings through the 

 thin wax cap of the honey cells. These small holes through the 

 cappings cause the honey to leak out, which makes the affected sec- 

 tion unmarketable. This type of damage is sometimes termed 

 " weeping." 



A rather indirect loss that might be charged to the wax moth is 

 the winter loss of colonies in the Southern States. Owing to the 

 necessity of preventing wax moth damage to stored combs after 



PiGunE 1. — Webs and tunnels made by larvae of the wax moth in a comb. 



extracting, and the expense of storage room and treatment for such 

 combs, many beekeepers store supers of these empty combs on the 

 colonies during the winter. This gives added room for the bees to 

 occupy during a warm spell, and a sudden change in temperature 

 may chill or even kill them before they can return to the cluster. It 

 also gives an opportunity for the dissipation of colony heat and 

 thereby increases the quantity of food consumed by the bees, and, 

 during long periods of cold or inclement weather, weak colonies or 

 colonies short of stores may starve. In many such cases of starva- 

 tion the wax moth destroys the combs before the beekeeper becomes 

 aware of the death of the colony. 



