118 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



Feb. 15 



as mentioned, and it soon worries itself to 

 death. Thus the trap works after it catches 

 all the criminally inclined bees. The small 

 amount of diluted honey on the inner wire 

 clith is used up, and automatically the rob- 

 ber-trap goes out of Commission. The old 

 sinners are all caught; and as there is no 

 more honey to attract honest bees, Mr. Hol- 

 termann will see that none are caught. 



In this way the few prowling robbers that 

 may accumulate in two or three days are 

 caught and automatically disposed of. They 

 either starve or worry themselves to death. 



Some years ago, when Mr. Wardell work- 

 ed for us, it happened that one of his men 

 left the door of the honey house open. That 

 was in the days before we had robber-traps, 

 and when robbers would be prowling about 

 during the entire season. On this occasion 

 the robbers rushed in pellmell. When the 

 robbing was at its height Mr. Wardell came 

 into the yard, and what did he do? He shut 

 the door, then shortly aft«r he went in and 

 killed the whole mass of bees clustered on 

 the screen. In ex- 

 planation of his ac- 

 tion he said we could 

 not afford to have 

 those bees go back 

 to their hives and 

 bring on an on- 

 slaught of hundreds 

 and perhaps thou- 

 sands of other bees. 

 He thought it more 

 economical for the 

 Root Co to kill the 

 first lot rather than 

 to let them loose. 



In pursuance of 

 the same principle 

 we later on devised 

 robber-traps. They 

 were first used by 

 Mr. Pritchard at our 

 north yard, and, lat- 

 er, put into commis- 

 sion at the home 

 yard by Mr. Bain. 



They have been doing splendid service at 

 both apiaries; and that their use is not 

 wasteful of bees is shown by the fact that 

 two gallons of bees will comprise all the 

 robbrrs trapped in a whole season in an 

 apiary of about 400 colonies and nuclei. 



The question may arise right here, " Is the 

 robber-trap of any use to the honey-produc- 

 * r? " Certainly not to the same extent that 

 it is useful in a queen-rearing yard; but dur- 

 ing a period of extracting, there are times 

 wuen it appears to us it might be used to 

 good advantage, especially if some careless 

 employee should happen to leave the door 

 of the honey-house open or allow a colony 

 to be robbed to death. 



As we have before pointed out, if robbers 

 can be caught at the very start they will be 

 found to be mainly from one hive, and a lit- 

 tle later from two or three. If they get well 

 agoing they will attract other bees by their 

 uproar; but if robber-bees be floured, and 



followed back to their hives, it will be seen 

 that the great bulk of them go to only two 

 or three hives A yard man has to be ex- 

 ceedingly careless to allow robbing to get 

 started throughout the entire yard. 



THE BEE-LOUSE. 



A Pest Found in the South of Continental 

 Europe and other Parts of the Orient. 



BY MANUEL ARRUDA PONTES. 



Tlie bee-louse iBraula cceca) about to burrow into 

 the fine hairs on the thorax of a bee, and suck the vi- 

 tality—about four times actual size. 



Dear Sir: — Enclosed you will find a pack- 

 age with 30 insects in a small box, and 3 bees 

 in a small bottle, showing how these instcts 

 attack the poor bees. I don't know the name 

 of this pest 



Fenaes d'Luz, Azores. 



[We will explain that we received this bot- 

 tle of bees some time ago. On examination 

 we found that these vermin are what is 

 known as the bee louse {Braula caeca) The 

 bees sent in alcohol 

 could not be photo- 

 graphed, of course; 

 but we attached one 

 of the insects to the 

 thorax of an ordinary 

 Italian bee, as nearly 

 as possible in the po- 

 sition of those fas- 

 tened to the bees in 

 the bottle It is in- 

 teresting to note, in 

 this connection, that 

 the longjffine hairs 

 oa the thorax of the 

 bee, which do net 

 show, even in the en • 

 larged photograph, 

 prevented us from 

 getting the Braula 

 down close to the 

 thorax. Of course, 

 if the insect had 

 been alive it could 

 have "burrowed" 

 its way down through this mass of fine hair. 

 We wish that all of our readers could see 

 the original photograph, for, being enlarged, 

 a mass of fine hair is shown all over the 

 bee that is not visible on the bee itself ex- 

 cel t with the aid of a strong glass. 



Prof. A. J. Cook, in "The Bee-keeper's 

 Guide," describes this bee louse as a blind, 

 spider-like parasite, which, considering the 

 size of the bee on which it lives and from 

 which it sucks its nourishment, is enormous- 

 ly large He states that two or three, and 

 sometimes as many as ten, are found on a 

 smgle bee; but on the bees sent to us there 

 was on y one insect, and in each case it was 

 clinging to the back of the thorax, about in 

 the middle, as shown. 



The bee-louse has done little damage, ac- 

 cording to Prof. Cook except in the ^outh of 

 continental Europe, Cyprus, and other parts 

 of the Orient. Our correspondent lives on 

 an island in the North Atlantic, west of Spain. 



