Lesson 53: Prevention First

Integrated pest management, apiary hygiene and comb replacement: the habits that prevent most problems

This chapter covers the pests and diseases that threaten honey bees. Before we look at them one by one, here's the most important idea in the whole chapter: it's far easier to prevent problems than to cure them. Most colony losses come from a few problems, varroa mites above all, and good everyday habits keep most of them in check.

Integrated Pest Management (IPM)

Beekeepers today manage pests using Integrated Pest Management, or IPM. IPM means:

1. Monitor regularly. Know what's in your hives by inspecting and sampling (for mites, lesson 55), so you act on facts, not guesses.
2. Use thresholds. Act when a pest reaches a level that will cause harm, not before and not too late (lesson 56).
3. Start with the gentlest tools. Use cultural and mechanical methods first: resistant bee stock, good hive management, screened bottom boards, drone-brood removal, brood breaks.
4. Use chemical treatments when needed, the softer products first, exactly as the label says, and rotate between products with different active ingredients so pests don't become resistant (lesson 57).
5. Check that it worked. Sample again after treating.

Extension specialists often picture IPM as a pyramid: a broad base of prevention and good management, with chemicals at the narrow top, used only when the lower levels aren't enough.

Strong colonies resist problems

Strong colonies with good queens handle pests and diseases far better than weak ones. They clean out sick brood, remove pests, defend against robbers and beetles, and keep wax moths out. Many of this chapter's problems (wax moths, small hive beetles, chalkbrood) mostly hit colonies that are already weak.

• Keep young, productive queens (lesson 45).
• Choose resistant stock where you can: hygienic and VSH bees remove diseased and mite-infested brood; Russian bees resist mites (lessons 15 and 83).
• Feed when needed (lesson 39) and combine weak colonies (lesson 47).
• Don't give a colony more space than it can cover and defend.

A clean bee yard: stopping the spread

Diseases and pests spread on equipment, on your hands and tools, in honey and comb, and on robbing or drifting bees.

• Don't buy used equipment or bees of unknown history (lessons 19 and 28).
• Never feed honey from unknown sources. It can carry American foulbrood spores (lesson 39).
• Clean your hive tool and gloves, and wash your hands, between apiaries, and especially after working a sick colony. Nitrile gloves or bare hands can be cleaned with alcohol-based hand sanitizer.
• Don't move frames or honey from a colony you suspect is sick into healthy ones.
• Prevent robbing (lesson 50). Robber bees carry mites and disease home.
• Clean up: don't leave old comb, frames, honey or dead colonies' equipment lying around.
• When a colony dies, find out why before you reuse its equipment (lesson 58).

Replace old comb

Brood comb darkens with age (lesson 9), and old comb can hold disease spores, pesticide and miticide residues that build up in the wax over the years.

Rotate out old comb on a regular cycle. Penn State Extension recommends removing and replacing the oldest 3–4 frames in each box every year, so all the comb is renewed on about a three-year cycle. Write the year on each frame when you add it, so you know which are oldest.

Culled comb can be melted down for its wax (lesson 75), as long as it didn't come from a colony with American foulbrood (lesson 58).

Know what "normal" looks like

The best early-warning system is you, knowing what a healthy colony looks like: solid brood with pearly-white larvae and tan, domed, unbroken cappings (lesson 34), a busy entrance, a calm hum, good stores. Anything different is worth a closer look. Keep records (lesson 41) so you notice changes over time.

What to remember

• Prevention beats cure. Practice IPM: monitor, use thresholds, gentle methods first, chemicals when needed (labeled, rotated), then recheck.
• Strong colonies with good queens resist most problems; use resistant stock where you can.
• Hygiene: no unknown used equipment or honey; clean tools and hands between yards; prevent robbing.
• Replace the oldest 3–4 frames per box each year; date your frames.

Quick check

1. What does "IPM" mean in beekeeping, in your own words?
2. Why should you never feed bees store-bought honey?
3. How often should brood comb be replaced, according to Penn State Extension?

Adapted from: Penn State Extension, Methods to Control Varroa Mites: An Integrated Pest Management Approach (Underwood & López-Uribe, updated 2025) and Honey Bee Diseases: American Foulbrood; Honey Bee Health Coalition, Tools for Varroa Management (9th ed., 2026); UGA Bee Program, Honey Bee Disorders: Bacterial Diseases and Non-infectious Diseases and Pests; University of Arkansas, Complete Beekeeping Short Course, Parts 2 and 8.

Adapted from university Extension sources. Experienced Georgia beekeepers are reviewing these lessons. See something that doesn't match your experience? Tell us.