f 



Circular No. 386 



Issued April 1936 



Revised January 1942 • Washington, D. C. 



UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 



The Wax Moth and Its Control 



By Warren Whitcomb, Jr., apiculturist, Division of Bee Culture, 

 Bureau of Entomology and Plant Quarantine 



CONTENTS 



Page 



Economic importance 1 



Life history 2 



The egg 2 



The larva 2 



Theprepupa 3 



The pupa 4 



The adult 4 



Number of broods 5 



Other moths causing damage to stored combs. __ 5 



Page 



Control 6 



Control measures in the apiary 6 



Control measures for stored combs 6 



Fumigating and storing comb-section honey 



and honey in extracting frames 8 



General directions for fumigation with para- 

 dichlorobenzene, carbon disulfide, and 



calcium cyanide 9 



>»»l«»^-S*»« *< » »* ^>« 



ECONOMIC IMPORTANCE 



The wax moth (Galleria mellonetta (L.)) 1 is responsible for large 

 losses to beekeepers in the United States. It is found almost every- 

 where that bees are raised, but it does the greatest damage in the 

 Southern States because of the long season of activity. 



Probably the most noticeable injury due to the wax moth is to 

 combs in storage, especially if they are in a warm, protected place. 

 Such injury consists in destruction of the combs by the larvae, which 

 leave them a mass of webs and debris (fig. 1). This type of damage 

 is more common than the destruction of entire colonies. Weak, 

 diseased, starved, or otherwise abnormal colonies are a prey of the 

 wax moth, and in these colonies the combs are often entirely de- 

 stroyed. In such cases, however, wax moth injury is secondary; 

 strong colonies will defend themselves well against attack. 



The larvae of the wax moth also do considerable damage to comb 

 honey. The eggs are probably laid on the comb or section boxes 

 before the comb-honey supers are removed from the hives, but the 

 damage does not become evident until some time after the honey has 

 been placed in storage. The damage consists of small, rather incon- 

 spicuous tunnels and borings through the thin wax caps of the honey 

 cells. The honey leaks out through these holes, making the affected 

 section unmarketable. 



1 This insect is also known variously as the bee moth, the bee miller, the Avax miller, 

 the wax worm, and the webworm. 



416141°— 41 



