Bad Beekeeping*

Wax and polythene (or, for that matter, polypropylene) are chemically quite similar: long chains of carbon atoms with lots of hydrogen bonded in (and a few atoms of oxygen in wax). A few years ago there was a flurry of excitement when a Spanish beekeeper and research student, working at Cambridge University, discovered an insect larva that could digest polythene. She found it by chance because she had taken some wax that had been populated by wax moth out of one of her beehives, put it in a plastic bag, stuffed it in a store room, forgotten about it, come back a few days later and found the larvae had eaten their way out of the bag!

I don't think it is entirely clear if the larvae produce enzymes that break down the plastic, or if they host gut bacteria that produce enzymes that break down the plastic. It's also not clear whether the larvae drive any real nutrition from the plastic, or whether they just don't like being confined in a bag

Similarly, journalists got excited when scientists at Portsmouth University announced that they had taken an enzyme from a bacterium that can break down plastic and adapted it to make it many times more effective. The longing for a solution to the problem of plastic pollution that does not require us to change our economies or lifestyles is enormous.

I can't help but be sceptical. If all the technical and logistical problems could be solved, and somehow we could "digest" all the waste plastic in the world instead of putting it into landfill - or adding it to the artificial island in the middle of the Pacific - the end product of digestion is still carbon dioxide. The disgusting mountains of plastic in the world's rubbish tips are, in effect, 'carbon capture' (or, at least, they are the alternative to 'carbon release' by incineration, or digestion). I don't believe there is a free lunch

There is an apocryphal story that a wise old beekeeper was asked how to protect stored honeycomb from wax moth. Their advice was that the wax should be treated with organic chemicals, then treated with non-organic chemicals, then tightly wrapped in plastic, sealed with gaffer tape, then stored under water at the bottom of a pond. This would not, they pointed out, prevent wax moth from finding the wax, but it would make the tyro beekeeper feel they had done their best

This image is what happens if you fail to protect your stored comb from wax moth. The larvae burrow through the comb and eventually create cocoons on it. All the while they spin sticky, wool-like threads that line the passages they create, often 'tying' combs together with the threads, like a Lilliputian, sci-fi nightmare. Infected comb is quite unusable. In this case, the presence of the larvae has also created moisture, so mould has developed, compounding the dereliction. All in all, a grim write-off, and I brought these out today merely as bonfire lighters (hence the al fresco shot)

It's quite common to see a wax moth, or even a larva, in a hive during an inspection, but it is very unusual for an active colony to suffer serious damage. The bees police their domain pretty strictly, and kill the larvae when they find them. If a colony is suffering from wax moth, there is almost certainly some deeper problem afoot, meaning that the colony is not strong enough to repel the intruders. We do not wage the same war on wax moth that we do on carpet/clothes moth in the house. Nevertheless, next season maybe I should consider the pond option

*"Confessions of a Bad Beekeeper" is the title of a funny and humane book by the late Bill Turnbull, avuncular TV presenter and journalist, who died last year. Like me, he didn't always get it right