REPORT OF THE STATE ENTOMOLOGIST 1 23 



lected, then washed with water and with a weak solution of ammonia. 

 In each case the presence of arsenic was detected. 



In the next experiment, six apple trees were sprayed May 4th with the 

 same solution as in the preceding experiment, and sheets twenty four feet 

 square were placed under them, and on the sheets two hives of bees. In 

 the next week fifty-six dead bees were found under the trees and in the 

 vicinity of the hives. Analysis of some of these showed traces of arsenic. 

 During this experiment the climatic conditions were, as a rule, unfavor- 

 able to the full activity of the bees. It thus appears that when the 

 weather is unfavorable for honey-gathering the bees do not suffer much, 

 even though there be not enough rain to wash all the poison off the 

 leaves. 



In the next successful experiment, two apple trees in full bloom were 

 thoroughly sprayed with Paris green — one ounce to twelve gallons of 

 water. The application was made in the morning of a clear, warm day, 

 and in the afternoon a number of bees were caught while visiting the 

 bloom and marked with carmine ink. The hives were but a few yards 

 from the trees. None of the marked bees were afterward found dead 

 about the hives. On the following day bees were caught in an ordinary 

 cyanide bottle, dissected at once and analyzed. No arsenic was found 

 associated with the posterior legs or the pollen with which they were 

 loaded, but it was found present in the contents of the abdomens, 

 including the honey sacs. Entire bodies, after repeated external wash- 

 ings, gave the test for arsenic. The experiment was repeated upon a 

 crab apple tree, and in this case the contents of the abdomen showed the 

 presence of arsenic. The other parts of the body were not tested. 



About May loth a small apple orchard on the Experiment Station farm 

 was sprayed with the Bordeaux mixture, to which had been added Paris 

 green, — four ounces to fifty gallons of the mixture. Three apparently 

 healthy colonies of bees had recently been brought on the premises, 

 and, although the bloom had nearly all fallen from the trees, one colony 

 suddenly became extinct and a second greatly reduced in numbers, dead 

 bees being abundant about both hives. Arsenic was found in the abdo- 

 mens of the dead bees and in the dead brood of the extinct hive; none 

 was found in the honey from uncapped cells, which might and probably 

 did contain last year's honey that was being used for a partial food- 

 supply by tlie bees. 



" Briefly recapitulated, arsenic was found in the contents of the abdo- 

 mens of bees frequenting recently sprayed blossoms, and we are at least 

 free to assume that more or less of it was contained in the honey sacs. 



