Comb Storage
Lexikon
Drawn comb kept over winter or between two nectar flows is above all threatened by the Greater and Lesser Wax Moth.
Drawn comb kept over winter or between two nectar flows is above all threatened by the Greater and Lesser Wax Moth. The larvae eat their way through the wax and destroy the comb as soon as it contains pollen or remnants of brood cocoons.
The safest rule is: store only light-colored comb that has never been used for brood and contains no pollen. For this, an airy, light and dry storage space is sufficient. Comb that has been used for brood and comb containing pollen is better rendered down promptly. A queen excluder in operation prevents honey comb from being used for brood in the first place.
Wax moths become active from about twelve degrees, below this limit they do no damage. A method entirely without chemicals is therefore cold. Lightly infested comb can be completely disinfested by forty-eight hours at minus eighteen degrees, which kills all stages of the moth. Comb with webbing clumps belongs in the wax melter immediately.
The airy box tower has also proven its worth: do not fill the boxes completely, the combs must not touch each other, keep a distance from the floor and close off the tower at the top and bottom with bee-tight mesh. The wax moth avoids the resulting draft. For chemical methods in comb storage, different regulations apply depending on the country, so the current information from the competent authority is decisive here.