In our first examination of the contents of the PVC tube holding the bee cocoons at Site3a in Flowing Springs (Payson), we noticed a number of 'bugs'. We were not very successful in photographing them since they were so fast. We asked our expert, Dr Steve Peterson and he replied, "I watched the videos and couldn’t tell. They might be parasitic wasps, lets hope not, or they could just be some little flies or other insects looking for shelter. If you can catch some and get a photo I might be able to tell.".
So were determined to catch some. To do so we ordered a 'Bug Capture Kit' from ACME Products.
ACME Products is well known throughout the Southwest for providing a wide range of quality products that perform superbly. There are numerous documentaries online showing the effective and safe use of ACME Products.
We used the ACME Products 'Bug Capture Kit' to examine the contents of the Site3a and then Site3b PVC tubes. First Site3a where the 'bugs' were originally observed.
Unfortunately, although the ACME Products 'Bug Capture Kit' worked perfectly, except for the explosion of course, there were no 'bugs' to be captured.
We did find more live larvae which we isolated in a plastic baggie and refrigerated for further study. We were concerned that these were predatory wasp larvae as documented in our previous post.
We got a response from Steve, "The bee parasites are larvae inside the bee larvae then hatch out as adult wasps. Those look like fly grubs maybe. Probably feeding on the spent cocoons. I haven’t seen that happen in California so I’m not too sure. I don’t think they will harm your bees."
Next we will examine the Site3b PVC tube and get an interesting surprise.
Comments