Horrible little worms

[Mellifera Crofter]

On the outer frame of one of my hives I found a dodgy corner with crumbly comb, and when I poked at it with my hive tool, saw lots of tiny little worms slithering away. They looked like miniscule earthworms. Do you have any idea what they might be?
I'll give a link to my Google file so that you can open the photo and see it enlarged: https://goo.gl/photos/PwGT933Wk118PyxK8 . You can see a couple of worms on the right of the bee (the bee's left).
Kitta

[Black Comb]

Wax moth larvae?
Sorry I can't see much detail on my iPad but wax moth would be my first thought.

[Mellifera Crofter]

Thanks BC. I also wondered whether they might be wax moth larvae, but I thought these were too small and slithery. I've only ever seen photos of wax moth larvae and they all appeared dryer and a whitish matt colour - but perhaps my poking around with the hive tool got these covered with honey. I also didn't see any silk strands or faeces. Perhaps they are just be very young wax moth larvae that haven't yet started to weave silk strands. If they are wax moth larvae then, according to Celia Davis, they must be those of the Greater Wax Moth because they tried to slither away as fast as they could. She says 'run' - I think 'slither'.

I can see three worms or larvae on the photo: a fairly white one directly under the bee's left wing, in a vertical position, a bigger one just below the little white one also pointing vertically up, and the third one lies horizontally directly below the second one and ends just under the bee's left antenna.

Kitta

[masterbk]

I didn't know that the greater wax moth could be found in scotland as GWM is far more sensitive to cold condiitons than the lesser WM and was until about 20 rs ago confined to the southern half of England. If they are wax moth caterpillars they will have brownish head , 3 pairs of true legs plus prolegs with claspers at the rear end. The larvae of both species can move quite quickly so that isn't realy a clue. Only the larvae of the GWM have 4 stemmata (type of simple eye on their heads) but you will need to put them under the microscope to see them. From what I can see from your photo I think they are larvae of the lesser WM. Once they make silk tunnels and pupate then far easier to identify which species you have.

[Mellifera Crofter]

Thank you, Masterbk - that's interesting extra information about wax moths that I did not know about.

I hope I've successfully removed all the larvae and that I won't find their silk tunnels when I next open the hive!

Kitta

[masterbk]

Unfortunately the mated female moth lays hundreds of eggs in crevices in the hive and these don't all hatch at the same time so don't be surprised to find more some time in the future. However most strong healthy colonies keep them under control so they are usually only a problem in stored comb. Waxmoths feature in the Q/A page of BBKA News in their October and forthcoming November editions. Maybe the SBA have published something on waxmoths in the past. If you know a BBKA member they might be able to lend you copies of the BBKA news.

[Mellifera Crofter]

Thanks again, Masterbk. I'll try to get copies of those two newsletters.

The larvae were on the furthest frame of a fairly strong colony - so I hope they can control them! If the fine weather continues I'll have another look before winter or when I remove the Apivar strips.
Kitta