QuebecBees · Quebec, CA · Pests & Disease · Aug 28, 2026
Yellowjackets stripped a dead-out before I got to it — is the drawn comb still safe to reuse?
Quebec, five hives, well, four now. Found a dead-out this week — colony had been dwindling since July and finally gave out, and by the time I opened it yellowjackets had moved through the whole thing. Every scrap of honey robbed, some cells torn up, wasps still cruising the frames.
My question is about the equipment: two deeps of good drawn comb in there, which is valuable to me. Does yellowjacket robbing itself contaminate comb somehow, or is the comb fine once they're done? And what's the actual protocol before I reuse it — I've read about freezing frames but not sure what that step is really for or how long. Also slightly paranoid about disease since the colony died on me: what should I rule out before this comb goes anywhere near a live hive?
#dead-out#comb-reuse#yellowjackets#wax-moth#afb
▲ 9 votes💬 4 replies✅ Solved
4 replies
MieleMarco · Aug 28, 2026 · ✅ Accepted answer
The wasps are the least of it — robbing doesn't contaminate comb. But FIRST do a disease autopsy on the brood frames: tilt them to the light and look for AFB scale — hard, black, brittle scales flat along the LOWER cell wall, stuck so tight you can't flick them out with a match. Sunken, perforated cappings on remaining brood are another flag. Scale means the comb goes nowhere; call your inspector. If clean (a July-onward dwindle reads as varroa/virus collapse, which comb doesn't transmit the way AFB does), freeze every frame 48 hours for wax moth, bag airtight, reuse in spring.
VTBeeHannah · Aug 29, 2026
The freezer step saved my comb stash last year — but the airtight bagging AFTER freezing is the part people skip. Frozen comb left in an open stack just gets re-laid by moths in a week of warm fall weather. Clear bin bags + tape, then I can see any webbing through the plastic.
PasiekaOlek · Aug 29, 2026
One more check while you're at it: smell. AFB dead-outs have a distinctive foul, gluey smell that once you know it you never forget. Not diagnostic on its own, but combined with MieleMarco's scale check it's another data point. Clean-smelling varroa dead-outs mostly just smell like old wax.
QuebecBees · Aug 30, 2026
Autopsy done: no scale on any frame, no sunken cappings, no bad smell, but I DID find a handful of dead bees with deformed wings down in the debris. So — varroa collapse, my treatment timing was clearly too late for this one. Frames are in the freezer, lesson is in the notebook.