A friend gave me some woodenware. Some of it's in pretty bad shape. I'm using (part of) a snow day to clean it up. Pictured is the inside of a 10 deep super. Is that from the bees trying to make themselves a second entrance?
(http://images.tapatalk-cdn.com/16/01/23/150219c7eef7c227a19591103d00c231.jpg)
No, that is caused by wax moth larvae. When the larvae spin their cocoons they chew the wood and make themselves an indention for the cocoons to rest in.
Thanks. Definitely lots of wax moth trash in this stuff. It might not be time/cost effective to clean it up. :/
If the wax moths and larvae are gone, does it really need to be cleaned up, or will the bees propolize or otherwise " clean it?"
I guess you could use something like Bobdo to fill in the crevices, but is it necessary?
It is not necessary to fill them in...
X2, just use them.
Jim
Oh, I'm not tempted to putty it smooth! But if the super looks like this after a good scraping, you might imagine what the frames look like.
Matt,
Most of us that have been beekeeping more than a couple of years do not have to imagine. We have lots of those frames in our hives. :angry:
Jim
Thanks for posting the pics. It's good to see things like that for when it happens to us. Because eventually, it will happen to us.