How to breed wax moths in an apiary

Recently, wax moths have begun to be bred on an industrial scale. Wax moths are bred for specific purposes, depending on which the cultivation technology is chosen. Wax moths can be grown in an apiary, at home, or in laboratories.

Content

• Methods for breeding wax moths
• How to breed wax moths at home - the experience of a beekeeper
• Wax moth how to breed video
• Methods for preparing (wax moth extract) wax moth tincture

 

Methods for breeding wax moths

If the beekeeper decides to produce wax moth extract, even for personal consumption, the beekeeper faces the problem that the wax moth must be diluted. How to breed wax moths?
Scientists have long developed several technologies for breeding wax moths.
In laboratories, wax moths are bred on artificial food; the diet of wax moths depends on the purpose of breeding wax moths and includes corn and wheat flour, yeast, wax, glycerin, water, milk powder and honey. To do this, wax moth butterflies are placed in a liter jar with filter paper circles. After oviposition, the circles are transferred to a Petri dish with food and cultivated in a thermostat at 30° C for 30-35 days. This is just one of the technologies for breeding wax moths.
But only wax moth tincture, made from larvae grown in conditions as close as possible to the conditions of a hive, contains a sufficient amount of enzymes to effectively combat Koch's bacillus and have other positive effects for the body. Wax moth tincture, prepared from larvae grown only on merv, or other substitutes, does not have anti-tuberculosis or any other medicinal properties. We must remember that wax moth larvae tolerate nutritional deficiency and incompleteness well, so simply raising larvae is only half the battle; such wax moth larvae can be used for various needs, but for medical purposes it is necessary to grow full-fledged biologically active material.
Such material is obtained in laboratories, and can also be obtained in the apiary.
It is necessary to breed wax moth larvae on dark honeycombs, with a small content of honey and bee bread, in which many generations of bees have hatched and in the cells there are many remains of bee cocoons. Such a honeycomb is not suitable for beekeeping, but it is just right for feeding wax moths.
It is better to select wax moth larvae for tincture by hand, or use several grids to calibrate the larvae, which will allow you to avoid taking larvae that are too young or too old. A beekeeper can rear wax moths at home to produce wax moth extract.

 

How to breed wax moths at home - a beekeeper's experience

 

I start breeding wax moth larvae to prepare medicinal preparations at the end of August. He organized the laboratory in the bee house and made sure that it was reliably isolated.
The entire wax moth breeding process consists of three stages.
The first stage of wax moth breeding. At the first stage, I obtain broodstock. I collect queen bees in bee hives between the canvas and the upper bars of the frames using a simple device made from a fumagillin bottle and plastic tubes. You need to collect at least 20 larvae.
I place them in a three-liter pan filled with wax debris, crushed old honeycomb, and put them in a warm place. For control, I place several larvae in half-liter jars filled in the same way.
The second stage of wax moth breeding begins with the emergence of adult moths. I bring the cases with discarded honeycomb frames into the apiary house and put them in a warm place (20-30°C). They should be enough for at least three to four housings (about 40 nesting frames). I place the bodies on top of each other, and in the last one I place dishes with larvae and pupae on top. The larvae should not be disturbed from the very beginning. You can control their development by those that, as indicated above, we placed at the very beginning in glass jars.
The third stage of wax moth breeding begins 10-15 days after the first butterflies emerge, or, more precisely, when the larvae appear on the honeycomb frames.
I discover them by holding one of the frames up to the light, and it is easy to notice the movement of the larvae. By this time, you need to prepare an empty hive with a special insert, which is made in the form of a box made of metal mesh. Its height corresponds to the internal dimensions of the hive, the distance between its walls and the insert is 1-2 cm. I put it in the hive, fill it with a mixture of 30% crushed honeycombs and 70% dry crushed firewood or merva. I open the entrances. On top of the hive I place a body with a funnel, and through it I shake out the larvae from the honeycomb frames into the hive (the frame must be held horizontally above the funnel and tapped on the top bar with a chisel). When the work is finished, I remove the body with the funnel, and in its place I put a magazine extension with honeycomb frames, then the roof cover it with canvas and put a pillow.

In the hive, between the walls and the insert, in their upper part, there must be jumpers so that the larvae can move from the insert to the magazine extension, the latter plays the role of a trap. The larvae inside the hive begin to feed. During their life, heat is generated. According to my observations, larger larvae require lower temperatures, so they move to the periphery, and then further, so they end up in the magazine extension.
After a few days, when large larvae begin to appear under the canvas, you need to shake the rest out of the frames in the store extension. To do this, I prepare a body with a funnel, as well as five 0.7 liter jars with lids and funnels. The funnels must be large, with a diameter of at least 2 cm at the narrow part. You can buy them at hardware stores or make them yourself by cutting off plastic bottles. I make a hole in the plastic lid of the jar and insert a funnel into it.
First, I separate the frames from each other and from the store, since they are all intertwined with cobwebs. I shake the magazine until all the larvae fall out of its honeycombs, after which I return the magazine to its place.
I separate the resulting larvae by size. A honey filter is perfect for this. Large overgrown larvae remain in the upper, large filter. I use them as breeding material; marketable larvae 10–15 mm long accumulate in the lower one.
The undergrowth will go down. This must be done above the hive with larvae, so that the undergrowth can, after passing through the filter, remain in the hive for growing.
You need to shake out the magazine two to four times a day.
Larvae should be added to the nesting frames after five to seven days. From one hive I get 50 g of larvae (I have from 7 to 12 hives). On average, I received 400 g of larvae per day, spending one to two hours of working time on this. I finish work in November, when frosts begin, since my bee house is not adapted for winter.
Let me note that moths are very reluctant to start in fire pits. Therefore, you have to first breed it on honeycomb frames and then move it to the fire pits. But when, as they say, “the process began?” and the butterflies will begin to lay eggs, you just need to add food as they eat it.