hive 1 had one or two small hive beetles on the last three inspections
(which i killed), i havnt noticed any beetle larvae but im sure its there somewhere. this is a strong hive and i suspect the bees are keeping them in check.
hive 2 is a weak hive, i have not seen any shb in this one, but when i pulled a sticky board out of this hive(after 24 hours) i did see some(about 7-10) larvae of something on the board. they sort of looked like the pics i found on the webb(not the greatest pics) of shb larvae but mine had hairs and instead of being all white these were white with a light brown band on each segment. they were small and looked sort of like little caterpillars. does this sound like shb larvae or maybe wax moths?
Wax moths will have an almost greenish tinge and will look strikingly like caterpillers. They will also be noticably hairy (not like a "wooly-caterpiller" but, they will have hairs (or something simmilar) that seem to grow randomly and thinly on the larva's body) SHB larvae will be mostly white with 2 little red dots next to each other on each side of the larvae. The head usually has little red intenae-like appendages.
I always thought that wax moth larvae looked pretty slimy to me. I never noticed any hairs. I'll look closer next time. They vary in size from tiney to 2" long, and in color from bright white to dull gray/green.
thanks, im pretty sure they are not wax moths, next time i see one ill examine a little closer. it shouldn't be that difficult to tell the differance between a coloeptera larva and a lepidoptera larva. i should have checked them out before i torched them.
just remember SHB larva has 3 sets of legs towards it's head end of its body.... you can see the legs on this one below... if it doesn't have the legs odds are thats it's a wax moth larva....
(http://drone.cyberbee.net/gallery/photos/shb/P2060220.sized.jpg)
Knock on wood I've never had to deal with wax moth damage (yet). Are they the same as wax worms that we use for ice fishing up in Minnesota? They are dry and stored in sawdust. The fish love 'em!!
David