242 



all eggs, though repeated treatments may be necessary to ensure 

 complete eradication. Hot water may effectively be used as a dip 

 preparatory to packing. If sealed and insect-proof packages are 

 used, fruit may pass through a lengthy period of storage without 

 danger of infestation. Attention has already been drawn to the value 

 of machinery for sealing [R.A.E., A, iii., 575]. This process has been 

 adopted by many cereal food manufacturers, and might advan- 

 tageously be used in the dried fruit industry. 



McDaniel (E.). Termites in Buildings {Leucotermes flavipes). — 

 Qrtly. Bull. Michigan Agric. Expt. S!a., East Lansing, ii, no. 3, 

 February 1920, p. 124. 



Termites, Reticulitermes {Leucotermes) flavipes, have been doing 

 considerable damage to wooden structures of all kinds in Michigan. 

 They are difficult to eradicate from a building, as the parent nests 

 may be several rods away in the soil, or in rotting stumps. Badly 

 infested timbers should be burned. If this is impossible, kerosene or 

 ammonia injected into the cavities is beneficial, as also are hght, 

 dryness and ventilation. All termite nests and rotten timber in the 

 neighbourhood of them should be destroyed. Timbers treated with 

 coal-tar creosote, or with zinc chloride by the pressure process, are 

 very resistant to attack. It is not safe to sink untreated timbers in 

 concrete foundations since, if the concrete cracks, it leaves an ideal 

 entrance for termites. 



Sturtevant (A. P.). A Study of the Behaviour of Bees in Colonies 

 affected by European Foulbrood. — U.S. Dept. Agric, Washinglon, 

 D.C., Bull. 804, 16th March 1920, 28 pp., 6 figs. 



European foulbrood is known to be an infectious disease due to 

 Bacillus plulon, the incubation period being from 36 to 48 hours. 

 During the first 5 to 7 days after the colony becomes infected the 

 spread of the disease is slow ; after this interval the disease increases 

 rapidly under favourable conditions. The critical time to detect the 

 disease and begin treatment is therefore early in its course. Evidence 

 tends to confirm the theory tliat one of the ways by which the disease 

 is spread in the colony is by the house-cleaning bees, and from 

 colony to colony by their drifting. Infection is probably carried on 

 the mouth-parts and feet; the question of infection from the 

 intestinal contents or from the source of larval food at various stages 

 needs farther substantiation. Itahan bees offer the greatest resistance- 

 to the disease, perhaps owing to their vigorous house-cleaning habits 

 rather than to any natural nnraunity. Infection does not seem tO' 

 be always removed by a period of queenlessness. Re-queening is 

 generally necessary, except possibly in the strongest Italian colonies. 

 A heavy honey flow tends to prevent infection from gaining a foot- 

 hold, and also tends to eliminate the disease if present when the 

 the heavy flow begins. European foulbrood is a disease of weak 

 colonies ; it is difficult to infect any but very weak colonies during 

 a heavy honey flow ; therefore, colonies kept strong up to the time o± 

 the honey flow run very httle danger of contracting the disease. 



