Nothing is easy.

[SlickMick]

G'day Lone,

Where in NQ are you? I am in Brissy now but had 3 years in Cairns what seems to be a lifetime ago

Reading through this thread I was thinking that you probably had SHB. You have good cause to be concerned about it. If it gets away on you it takes over in no time flat.

Nice to see another Aussie on the board

[sc-bee]

I just skimmed over the post real fast-- hope I didn't miss this info:

Bt comes in many strains and for it to be effective agianst the wax moth it has to be the correct strain.
Just getting Bt from a nursery, you may have the wrong one.

The correct Bt is:
Bacillus thuringiensis, subsp. aizawai, Strain

It should be listed in the active ingredients.

My understanding is to spray drawn foundation and it does no good to spray foundation before it is drawn.

[Brian D. Bray]

Something to remember when dealing with wax moths, they will only attach combs that have had brood in them.  for instance you can take a super full of frames, extract the honey and set the super aside for the winter.  When you come back to that super in the spring those frames that were only used for stores will be untouched and any frames that have had brood in them will be filled with wax moth silk and debre. 
So when using Bt (certan) the only frames that need application are those that have pupae casings from brood rearing. 

[Kathyp]

brian, i just found a little wax moth in some foundation that had not been used.  it was in a box that i had set aside and the wax moth had built at the bottom of the frame on new foundation.
an exception to the rule?

[Brian D. Bray]

There are always exceptions to the rule, but in your case it is more likely that impure wax was used in some for some of the foundation in the box and the wax moth focused on that area.  It would alse explain why the rest of the box or of each sheet was not liekwise infected with wax moth.

[Lone]

Hello,

Apologies for the delay in replying.

Things have picked up slightly.  We reconstructed all the supers and spares to take SHB traps.  We requeened two hives which now have nice quiet beautiful baby bees (as opposed to the previous ones that had the blokes running round a 20' long shed), and finally we extracted some honey.  Only a taste mind you, but real liquid gold.  We are half-way through building the extraction shed (I told them I would extract in the loungeroom if they didn't build a shed  ;) and I got 4 honey gums from the nursery today which might be beneficial for the bees within the next 20 years (the labels say they are good for honey and koalas).  Best of all, my off-sider now has a proper veil so in theory he won't leave me holding a tilting super with a hive of disgruntled bees charging at me again while he nurses some little sting on his nose.  That is one lesson I've learnt: give your off-sider a veil.

SlickMick, I'm in the middle part of North Queensland.

Sc-Bee, thanks for the info.  The BT I have is the nursery variety and doesn't state the subspecies.  I'm due to check the problem hive in the next couple of days and I hope wax moths are not troublesome anymore. I have been putting plain foundation on the less protected edges, leaving the bees to hopefully protect the drawn and brood comb from moths better in the centre of the hive.  I previously had whole combs ruined by having them at the edges.  The bee population is very gradually increasing, which helps.

Lone