404 



ANNUAL REPORT OF THE Off. Doc. 



tbat the main thing is to avoid giving encouragement to the breed 

 ing of worms in combs. Do not have combs or pieces of comb lying 

 about as breeding places. Especially do not have a weak colony 

 or nucleus of black bees in a hive that is filled with combs. Keep 

 Italian bees, and follow the golden rule, "Keep all colonies strong," 

 and you can snap your fingers at moth and worm. Something more 

 as to the treatment of worms will be found under the heading, "Care 

 of combs." 



Ants are somew-hat serious enemies in the south, but as far north 

 as this the most that can be said of them is that they are trouble- 

 some. Perhaps they are more troublesome to the bee-keeper than 

 to the bees. Some bee-keepers have quilts over the brood-frames, 

 although now-a-days there is nothing generally but an air space 

 of one-quarter of an inch between the top bars and the cover. The 

 quilt furnishes a delightful place for the ants to make their nest, the 

 bees not being able to get at them, but furnishing abundant heat 

 for the ants. When the bee-keeper opens the hive, the ants run 

 over his hands and arms, biting him, and they run in among the 

 bees stirring them up to anger. Sometimes the bees take a curious 

 revenge by seizing the ants, sailing off in the air with them, and 

 dropping them so far from home that they will not find their way 

 back. Aside from the annoyance, the ants do little or no harm, and 

 make their nests in the hive for the sake of the warmth. Have hives 

 so constructed that there is no place in them where a bee cannot 

 get as well as an ant, and the bees will keep the ants away. 



Mice commit depredations winter and summer. In winter they 

 make havoc in hives occupied by colonies, whether the colonies are 

 strong or weak. They eat the honey, which is the smallest part of 

 the trouble, for there is greater loss from the combs destroyed by 

 them, and they may even eat the bees. In summer they like to 

 make their nests in hives filled with combs but without bees, and 

 gnaw the combs badly. Such hives should be closed mouse-tight. 



So long as bees are active, there is no danger that mice will trouble 

 a colony. When the bees become semi-dormant with the cold, then 

 the mice seize their opportunity. The bee-keeper should head them 

 off by closing the hive against them in time. It will not do to close 

 the entrance against the bees, either in cellar or outdoors, so a good 

 way is to close it with wire cloth of coarse mesh, say three meshes 

 to the inch. Wire nails may answer if the right wire cloth cannot 

 be had. Drive them so they will stand a fourth of an inch apart, and 

 the mice will be excluded while the bees have free jiassage. 



Spiders should not be allowed to have webs near the entrance to 

 catch bees. 



Skunks sometimes scratch on the alighting board at night, gobbling 

 the bees as they come out. Stir Rough on Rats or some other poison 



