"Baby mites" on worker brood (???)

[Michael Bush]

Definitely not Varroa mites.  Keep in mind there are two kinds of wax moths.  Lesser and greater.  Also they change size as they mature and the size of their frass changes as they do.

http://www.bushfarms.com/beespests.htm#waxmoths
http://www.bushfarms.com/beeswaxmoths.htm

[Ben Framed]

Definitely not Varroa mites.  Keep in mind there are two kinds of wax moths.  Lesser and greater.  Also they change size as they mature and the size of their frass changes as they do.

http://www.bushfarms.com/beespests.htm#waxmoths
http://www.bushfarms.com/beeswaxmoths.htm

👍🏻

[yes2matt]

Definitely not Varroa mites.  Keep in mind there are two kinds of wax moths.  Lesser and greater.  Also they change size as they mature and the size of their frass changes as they do.

http://www.bushfarms.com/beespests.htm#waxmoths
http://www.bushfarms.com/beeswaxmoths.htm

The state inspector also guesses wax moth.

But these pics are of larvae pulled from the  center of a frame in the center of the nest, not abandoned comb on the edges where I might expect wax moth activity.

Pictured is the frass of the wax moths that keep my frames clean. It is also pretty consistent in size, a lot bigger (I mean a tiny bit bigger than tiny) than the specks in question. And also you can see the striations in the turds they are going the longitudinal way and it's hard to see in my previous pics but the specks also have striations, two, but in the latitude.

But I don't know anything about a lesser wax moth. If it was in my backyard I'd get a couple more out and cut the cells and freeze the samples till I could arrange a microscope.

Sent from my SM-J737P using Tapatalk

[Michael Bush]

Usually the first hint you have of lesser wax moth is bees that are struggling to emerge.  They look energetic enough to emerge but they seem stuck.  The lesser wax moth has them tangled in it's web which it burrowed down the center of the midrib.