Copious amounts of wax worms were visible in the gerber diet container that was incubated at 30C. They all appear close to the wandering life stage and are large in size. Their visible growth appears to have happened suddenly, as I was not able to see younger instars in the food half a week ago when it was last viewed.
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| Bottom view of wax worms and gerber diet after 9-8-14. |
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| Top view of wax worms and gerber diet after 9-8-14. |
My containers housing the wax moths appeared to have succumbed to moisture. There was visible condensation on the insides of most of the containers. The wax paper present in the container is visibly moist and sagging. A number of the wax worms have turned black indicating their death and the containers smell of moisture and rot.
Regardless, a number of the wax moths are still alive and moving, so the containers were left at 30C until further notice. I will periodically check for egg formation.
Crude P. larvae waxworm pilot study:
50 uL of BHI + 1mg/L thiamine broth was added to the bottom of six wells of a 12 well plate. Additionally, 50 uL of a broth culture of P. larvae was added to the remaining six wells of the 12 well plate. On top of the added liquid, a small portion of the gerber diet was added. The youngest instar waxworm was added to each of the wells of the 12 well plate and the cover taped shut. This plate set up was repeated in duplicate. The two plates were incubated in the 30C walk in incubator. I just want to see if the P. larvae will have a lethal effect on the wax worms. Of course, the wax worms were older than I would have liked (as P. larvae has been shown to be an opportunistic pathogen to early instar honey bees) and I don't know the concentration of the P. larvae that was added, but you have to start somewhere!
//EWW
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