FOURTEENTH ANNUAL YEAR BOOK— PART IX. 609 



advanced stage. Where the insects are undisturbed the combs 

 are soon entirely destroyed, thus removing a menace to all the 

 bees in the neighborhood. Where bees die of disease the honey 

 left in the hive is soon carried away by visiting bees and the 

 disease thus spread among surrounding apiaries. 



In the case of colonies dead of foul brood, while the moth does 

 not destroy the diseased scale the wax in the combs is so effec- 

 tively removed that there is little attraction for robber bees who 

 might spread the disease. 



The Italian bee is much more resistant of moths than are the 

 black or hybrids and persons complaining of moths are advised 

 to requeen all colonies with pure Italian stock and take care that 

 all colonies are kept strong. This done there need be no further 

 uneasiness about the wax moth. 



TREATMENT OF DISEASE. 



It must be remembered that thoroughness is essential in deal- 

 ing with bee diseases. One can no more expect to get rid of 

 foul brood by careless methods than they can expect to prevent 

 the spread of small pox or diphtheria without careful disinfection. 

 European foul brood spreads very rapidly at times and seems 

 almost impossible to control. At other times it is less malignant 

 and is easily managed. Some of^ the most practical bee keepers 

 of my acquaintance make a practice of taking diseased colonies 

 to an isolated situation several miles from their healthy apiaries 

 as soon as the presence of disease is discovered. In this manner 

 they can treat the diseased colonies with less danger of spreading 

 it. It is not an uncommon practice to destroy utterly the dis- 

 eased colony together with hive and honey, where only a few 

 colonies are diseased. This is undoubtedly the safest plan where 

 the owner has a large apiary, as the resulting loss is small com- 

 pared to the risk of spreading the disease among all his colonies. 

 If the disease is far advanced and the colony weakened it is not 

 advisable to attempt to save the colony unless it be united with 

 another diseased colony. The hive and frames can be saved, 

 however, if thoroughly disinfected. Fire is the best thing for this 

 purpose, as ordinary disinfectants are not sufficiently strong to 

 be of much use. Scorching the inner surface of the hive with a 

 painter's torch, or painting with kerosene and burning it out is 

 a common way. 

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