33S On the Management of Bees. 



which time only they are visible on their webs in the centre of 

 them, and are easily taken by the hand and destroyed. These 

 are the insects which Virgil points out — 



• dirum tinese genus, aut invisa Minervae 



Laxos in foribus suspendit aranea casses. — Virg. Georg. iv. 

 But of all the numerous enemies which bees have to encoun- 

 ter, the most daring as well as the most destructive is the wasp. 

 Rapacious, lively, and bold, he attacks the hive ; he enters it 

 without fear, and plunders it without mercy: to them many hives 

 fall sacrifices in the course of every season. 1 have found the 

 only efficient remedy is, to destroy their nests in the neighbour- 

 hood of the apiary: they are easily discovered in the side of a 

 ditch, or near the water, where the decayed roots of the alder 

 have left a cavity, in which places I have observed they much 

 delight to breed : this is done at night, when they have all re- 

 turned to their nests, by putting port-fire into their holes, or by 

 burning straw on them : their nests, however, are not discovered 

 until they have become numerous, and so attract observation by 

 their flight, directed in numbers to a particular place ; and be- 

 fore they are so discovered, they commit great and destructive 

 devastation among the hives. I have uniformly closed the en- 

 trance of my hives by the means pointed out in the following 

 drawing, where the bees enter the hive by two small doors, suffi- 

 cient only to admit a single bee at a time. 



After trying the common experiments of hanging up bottles of 

 honey or sweet liquor near the hives, I found I lost as many bees 

 in those as I destroyed wasps : and it therefore occurred to me, 

 that the best mode of securing the hives would be to narrow the 

 doors while the wasps were out, or on the wing, by some expe- 

 dient which at other times would allow the bees their full scope 

 of exit and entrance. The following is my invention, and it has 



I I 



n 



answered admirably, not for the purpose only of enabling the bee* 



to 



