Beemaster's International Beekeeping Forum

BEEKEEPING LEARNING CENTER => GENERAL BEEKEEPING - MAIN POSTING FORUM. => Topic started by: applebwoi on February 01, 2010, 02:04:41 AM

Title: Waxworm Life Cycle
Post by: applebwoi on February 01, 2010, 02:04:41 AM
Does anyone know life cycle of the waxworm?  I'm interested in the time from egg to moth and how many cycles might occur in an empty hive.
Title: Re: Waxworm Life Cycle
Post by: ONTARIO BEEKEEPER on February 01, 2010, 10:23:10 PM
From what I understand eggs ( as many as 250 ) hatch in about five days, and then the length of the larval stage depends on the quantity of food and also the temperature, but can last from one month to four months.
Its shocking how fast they can destroy honeycomb, even just a few larvae will make a huge mess in no time.

My brother in law has 3 commercial freezers that I use to freeze my extracted supers in for 48 hours. Then they get stored in a wax moth free location. This has saved me from unpleasant surprises.