# How is it done Treatment Free?



## Beeboy01 (May 20, 2008)

I have reviewed the rules covering this Forum and have found that my bee keeping is treatment free except for one item. I use paramoth to control wax moths in my stored supers. My question is how can I store and protect my extra equipment from wax moths without using any chemical means? I understand that this forum frowns on the use of any chemical in the hive and I am "pushing my luck" by bringing up paramoth but I don't know how else to ask about non chemical wax moth control for my extra supers. I currently have 14 shallow and 4 deeps all with drawn comb that need protection from wax moths. Any and all advice is welcome. Thanks 
Ed


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## Solomon Parker (Dec 21, 2002)

Efforts to eliminate chemicals are always welcome here.

To address your question, the first thing to look at is location. You're in Florida so what you have to work with is different. I do both of two things depending on the situation. My main and almost sole honey flow ends around June and little else happens in the rest of the year. So when I harvest, I take the honey outside of what I think the bees will need that year, preferring to leave them more rather than less so that feeding won't be necessary. Usually this means that three deeps are not touched on the bottom and the top one or two deeps are harvested. So I put the empties back on the hive. When the small late flow happens, the bees will backfill the broodnest a bit rather than storing the honey up high. As winter begins, I usually leave the boxes on the hive and I have had no problems with the configuration.

This year, due to very little honey at all, I have removed the supers after freezing started so I can feed granulated sugar right above the stored honey so the bees can get to it when they burn through the honey.

In summary, I let the bees guard the comb and then the cold if necessary. I find keeping very large hives, even with portions unoccupied during major portions of the year, keeps swarming down. 

In your case, you probably can't rely on freezing so you might find that your solution lies in leaving the bees to guard. I've heard arguments about heat loss in such a large hive, but I use upper entrances and there is not much heat retention anyway. Plus, I doubt Florida won't have as many issues with cold. We get into the minus double digits.

Thanks for asking, I hope you found something useful.


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## KQ6AR (May 13, 2008)

I think he might have problems with small hive beetles if the bee population got to low in the winter. Maybe I'm not treatment free because I use BT on my stored comb. Its approved by naturally grown beekeeping standards, & organic growers use BT for different pests around the farm.


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## odfrank (May 13, 2002)

I have minimal wax moth problems by using excluders on my honey supers and storing brood comb on strong hives. In my location wax moths do not bother yellow honey comb that has no pollen or cocoons.


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## Beeboy01 (May 20, 2008)

I need to keep my hives a little crowded in the fall because of small hive beetles. I had a hive slimed last year from a queen problem and too much room in the hive and don't want to risk something like that again. Even storing one or two supers on a hive makes me uneasy. I've seen SHB's take over a weak hive in under a week. We don't have a long freeze in my area, just 1-2 weeks of below freezing at night with the coldest dropping down to the upper 20's which helps keep the wax moth problem down in the winter. I prefer keeping large hives because they are able to fight off pests and can pack away honey during a flow. Thanks,
Ed


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## BGhoney (Sep 26, 2007)

Wax moths don't like light . You can stack your supers and deeps in a well lite area and they tend to leave them alone. I have used low wattage light bulbs top and bottom of my stacks and they don't seem to move in. Don't have a clue about hive beetles .


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## FlowerPlanter (Aug 3, 2011)

I would stay away from paramoth, I hear it is bad stuff and it leave residue in the comb.


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## BrianTurner (Dec 28, 2011)

Hi, I'm new here and all, and I don't think these two break the rules as it introduces nothing to the hive. 

MY Solution for waxmoths around my hive: "Take a 2 liter plastic coke bottle and cut a 1 inch hole just below the slope on the neck, then add 1 cup water, 1 cup sugar, ½ cup vinegar and finally 1 banana peel. Wait a few days till it starts to ferment, then tie it into a tree close to the hives. This trap will draw the wax moth, they enter the hole can't get out and drown in the liquid." it worked quite nice and I hung one in the tree near my hive. I do see dead moths in it all the time, and I have found some few day old moth larvae once, but that was it. 

Solution for stored Equipment is: I have a few cheap LED lights, that are set to a timer, in day time they are off at dusk they go one, it seems wax moths being nocturnal they avoid my stored equipment since it has bright lights.


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## deknow (Jul 17, 2006)

If I needed to store comb and protect it, I would find heavy duty plastic bags (like for a trash compactor), hopefully big enough for a few boxes stacked. Stack the boxes, devise some way to seal tight (really tight).

Before you seal the bag, either fill it with CO2 from a cannister, or put some dry ice in (this will sublimate into CO2 gas).

Anyone will tell you I'm kind of a purest....but I'd have a hard time finding fault with CO2 on stored comb.

deknow


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## Fusion_power (Jan 14, 2005)

Deknow, I think you are more of a purist. 

If you seal it tight enough and put in frozen carbon dioxide, it will inflate like a balloon as the CO2 sublimates.

DarJones


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## Solomon Parker (Dec 21, 2002)

Purists Unite!!!!
...then fight a lot.


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