Wasp, Did You Say?

It’s out of honey harvest and into pest control for second-generation beekeeper ‘Aimz’ as the seasons turn in the Bay of Plenty…

As sweat beads off my eyebrows and funnels down my chin, the penetrating sunshine cooks. Steaming 6ft tall grass engulfs the truck, let alone the site of forty-eight hives, tin lidded mushrooms barely visible as the humidity peaks.

The last of the summer sites have been dealt with, the challenge of temporary placings over for another year. Near vertical driveways, check. Caving holes into netherworlds, check. Locals, logistics and loyalties – absolutely.

Pests abound. The mite load has been pretty substantial. Apistan has gone into hives, being our big gun to tied the hives over until they can be serviced closer to home.

Wasps have been surprisingly absent at some sites. Made noticeable by the innumerable hoards at others.

Decimation by degrees and end of season peril. Packing the truck with dead-outs before we even begin taking honey.

One site was a shamble of destruction, with only ten hives surviving out of twenty-four. On arrival the number of wasps working the site was alarming. Inspection of brood frames showed noticeable mite damage, scattered brood, and baby bees dead in the process of emerging from their cells. Frame after frame of devastation. Why were perfectly normal bees dying after breaking through their cappings? Chillbrood? The answer came clear as I witnessed a wasp grappling with a hatching bee, biting it and stinging it to death. The predator engrossed, I watched for several minutes and showed the guys, then ground that vespid scum into the comb with my hive tool.

Savagery aside, my mum tells me tales of a wasp nest she poisoned at a local school many moons ago. The nest was excavated and found to be the size of a small car.

With a colony producing hundreds or even thousands of queens over a season, there is a real need to keep a check on these feral populations, for both social and economic reasons. Nothing puts you off summer like getting a wasp in a mouthful of cold beer.

Wasp stings are a different protein to bees, causing an over-reaction in some beekeepers. I found myself itching for days after copping a couple at that last site. It’s possible, after talking to a few beekeepers, the more immunity you have to bees, the harder you fall to wasps.

Fortunately our wintering sites are close to home, allowing us to manage the population with Vespex. Finally, the change of season.

Next steps will be putting wasp guards on everything, knocking all the weaker hives down to one box and resuming regular feed runs. Winter beekeeping seems so romantic after the fast-paced action of the last few months.

Cold weather will bring days indoors sorting the organized chaos of the honey shed. Wax moths and their larvae are another pest that I have noticed from time-to-time. Grotesquely rising up out of the substrate like a miniature of that ‘90s movie “Tremors”. Their time in the sun is limited however as all our supers are stored in the coolstore, breaking their life cycles.

Once upon a time, wax moth repression was more complicated. Methyl bromide was very effective, fumigating hive-ware on site. Our own containers would be sealed and gassed, and with little concern of residue, seemed ideal. At some point regulations changed due to concerns about ozone depletion and toxicity, and consequently methyl bromide was deemed an unsuitable control. Another method was using paradichlorobenzene, a form of mothballs, situated to the top and middle of a stack of boxes. The fumes are heavier than air and would settle into the boxes below. Ultimately, we now have the ideal form of control - no chemicals, no double handling, just freeze the little maggots.

Get it the truck out of here. 50 drums of honey shipped, leaving us room in the shed.

While those moths meet with an early winter, I am not quite ready for hibernation. My pores still bleed honey, although the end is in sight. My beekeeping mileage is clocking over, with the etching of a hive-tool plain to see in my calloused fingers. A testament to a kick-ass season. Soon enough I will be wearing a hoodie under my bee suit, and the cyclical urgency of our occupation will fade like the summer. Until you hear from me again I will be making the most of the warm days and enjoying the wind down.

I hope you are too.

Aimz.

(Editor’s note: when it comes to controlling wax moth, there’s now an organic product on the market, B402, Certan, from Vita Bee Health and available through Ceracell in New Zealand).

Aimz is a second-generation commercial beekeeper in the Bay of Plenty who took up the hive tool full time at the end of the 2024 honey season. Formerly a stay-at-home mum to four kids, she has now found her footing in the family business.