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Wax moth got into brood comb from a dead-out — which frames are worth saving and which go in the fire pit?

Oregon, fifth year. I lost a small colony in late August to what I'm fairly sure was a mite-driven collapse, and I made the classic mistake of stacking the boxes in the shed "until the weekend". Six weeks later I opened them and it's a horror show: silk tunnels across the faces, frass, cocoons spun into the frame corners, and larvae that have chewed grooves right through the midrib of several combs. Trying to be unsentimental about what to keep. The five frames with tunnelling through the midrib are clearly finished — I'll cut the comb out and keep the frames if I can scrape them properly. About eight frames have surface damage only: webbing over the cells and cocoons in the corners but the comb itself is mostly intact. Two things I'd like a second opinion on. Is old dark brood comb worth saving at all, given I've been meaning to rotate it out anyway? And how careful do I need to be about disease here — the collapse looked like varroa and DWV rather than anything notifiable, but this was a dead-out and I don't want to spread whatever finished it.
#wax-moth#comb-storage#dead-out#frames
▲ 9 votes 💬 4 replies ✅ Solved
4 replies
GeorgiaWes · Oct 10, 2026 · ✅ Accepted answer
Georgia. You've talked yourself into the right answer on the tunnelled ones, so burn the comb and keep the woodwork. On the rest: honestly, old dark brood comb plus wax moth damage plus six weeks in a warm shed is not worth the shed space. You were going to rotate it out. Do it now and start the spring with foundation. Keep the frames, scrape them, scorch the boxes.
ImkerinLena · Oct 10, 2026
Bavaria. Agree. On disease: if the collapse looked like varroa and virus, the comb itself is not the main risk, but the honest position is that you cannot rule out spores from a dead-out you did not examine carefully. Since these are old brood combs with no value, rendering or destroying them removes the question entirely. If any frame had sunken, greasy, foul-smelling cells you should be talking to your local inspector, not to us.
mn_newbee · Oct 10, 2026
Lurker question — MayaBees, what should you have done with the boxes instead in August? I have two spare supers sitting in my garage right now and this thread has me worried.
MayaBees · Oct 10, 2026
mn_newbee — 48 hours in a freezer, then stored cold, airy and in the light. Wax moth barely operates below about 10°C, so in Minnesota an unheated shed or garage from November is genuinely fine. It's the warm weeks either side of winter that get you, which is exactly what got me. Boxes scorched, comb burned, lesson filed.
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