How do you protect your empty drawn supers?

BeeMaster2 · September 25, 2013, 10:16:30 PM

I pulled the honey off my hives 3 weeks ago on a Saturday. On Sunday and Monday we extracted the honey and put the supers back on the hives for about 4 days. I then placed 3 empty frame on the bottom and placed a cup of moth balls (the correct type) in 3 cups and placed them in the empty supers and stacked a total of 24 supers on top of them and put a cover on each one. This evening I opened one of the stacks and right on top was a new greater wax moth. I killed it and started taking the supers apart. Most of the darker frames had worms or pupa cases in them.

I have tried leaving a super out in the open but the roaches are here are horrible and really make a mess of them. I think they even eat the wax. I was hoping the moth balls would keep them from growing in there but I think it just keeps the moths from being attracted to them.
I have a lot more supers on the hives that still need to be extracted and stored and I really need to be able to protect them.

How do you protect your supers without freezing them down here in the south?

Jim

iddee · September 25, 2013, 10:29:37 PM

Agree WG - Bt Aizawai Powder

10framer · September 25, 2013, 11:28:42 PM

i don't think that stops the roaches, though.

trapperbob · September 26, 2013, 12:08:20 AM

The roaches won't hurt anything. Heck they can be found in some hives even the bees don't seem to mind them

Michael Bush · September 26, 2013, 02:31:15 PM

If they are in the hive proper and the bees don't seem to mind them, I would worry about the density of the bees. I always find it a bad sign that they will tolerate roaches in the hive...

10framer · September 26, 2013, 04:11:04 PM

^^^^^ agree. and i don't want them in my honey house either.

BeeMaster2 · September 28, 2013, 07:21:27 AM

Thanks all. I am trying to find a local source for Agree AW.
I have removed 2 hives in houses where the beetles slimed it and the cockroaches ate almost all of the comb. All that was left was a thick layer of crap. According to the home owners, 3 months earlies both hives were very strong.
Jim

BeeMaster2 · September 28, 2013, 07:38:32 AM

Quote from: Michael Bush on September 26, 2013, 02:31:15 PM
If they are in the hive proper and the bees don't seem to mind them, I would worry about the density of the bees. I always find it a bad sign that they will tolerate roaches in the hive...

Mike,
My observation hive experiences back this up. If the hive only has a small amount of bees the roaches will live in it. I have had as many as 5 roaches living in the OB with the bees. They just stay away from the bees. As the hive starts to fill, they end up being trapped in the top of the hive. As the hive starts to have enough bees to fill the hive the number of roaches decreases. I see a change in the behavior of the roaches as the bee population increases. They go from just moving to a bee less area to panicking, trying to find a bee less area. Then they disappear from the hive.
They do not show up again until the bee population drops to the point that the bees cannot protect the entrance.
Jim