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gLea.N'Lnus t:s' h\':E cLJ/i'UUK. 



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saved? Hang them up in some light and dry place, 

 carefully separated so that they nowhere touch 

 each other, and sulphur tiiem Irom time to ti-nie. 

 Most of you know by heart this old, old story, and 

 many of you only to neglect what requires so much 

 care, and time never waits upon any procrastlnator. 

 You need not be told that eternal vigilance is the 

 price which miiat be paid if we would save empty 

 combs for the bees. 



Columella said, nearly two thousand years ago: 

 " This business [bee-keeping] demands maxinutm 

 fidelUatcm [the greatest fidelity], which, since it is 

 the rarest of qualities," etc. It is just as hard to 

 find it now as then, but we never needed it more, 

 and I pi'oceed to tell those who are conscious that 

 they are weak in this matter, how " without money 

 and without price" they may secure it. The facts 

 which I shall now gi\e are recorded in my private 

 journal, and have been often told to beekeepers, 

 some of whom will, no doubt, i-emember them as 

 given bj' me many years ago. Within a year or 

 two ray methods have been given in part to bee- 

 keepers by some German apiarist— and how nuich 

 do we owe to our German friends, among whom 

 Dzierzon stands first! 



I extract now, word for word, from my Journal, 

 Vol. I., under date of July 8, 1804: 



"SpiV/rr.s' I count as friends. Last season T put 

 away snifili frames of coiiib under a liox, and the 

 spiders l<i -pt IIumii licr Irinn nidtlis; this ,\c:ii- I had 

 a numlx r ol lii\es willi eoiiilis. luit no hecs. and 

 they have guarded them will: Whcie a spider has 

 her web, there it will be sale to keep empty combs." 



1 will now explain more fully how I came to find 

 the spider's value to the beekeeper. A nucleus 

 with a choice imported Italian queen was i>laced on 

 an empty bo.\ hive laid on its side upon the ground, 

 with its cavity facing the north, to protect its con- 

 tents from the sun. ]n this cavity I put (piite a 

 number of frames with choice combs to be given 

 from time to time to the nucleus, wheti frames of 

 brood for queen-rearing were taken from it. I ex- 

 pected that some, at least, of these combs would be 

 visited by the bee moth; but examining each comb 

 as 1 took it from the old box, I found no signs that 

 they had hurt them. This surprised me much, un- 

 til 1 saw, when I came to the further end of the 

 bo.\, (( spitlcr'ii ivch with its occupant, and many 

 proofs of the kind of work that had been done (all 

 unknown to me) in the shap»> of skeletons of bee- 

 moth and other insects suspended in that web. 



It was not until next year that I reaped any great 

 benefit from seeing the handiwork of this spider. 

 Dec. 30, 18fi!, the weather at Oxford, Ohio, was quite 

 mild for a winter day, the mercury ranging at 

 about 42°, the day being misty and threatening rain. 

 At 5:30 p. m. my thermometer was 42°. The wind 

 began to rise, and at 6: 30 p. ra., the record was 32° ; 

 7:30 p. m., 22°; 10: 30 p. m., 8'. Jan. 1, 18(:4, T a. m,, 

 1C° below zero, with a gale of wind. What soldier 

 who camped out that day will ever forget it? In 

 our apiary were many weak colonies, wintered only 

 because we could then sell every tested queen we 

 could spare in the spring for from *10 to .¥20. Near- 

 ly every one of these weak colonies was dead when 

 I examined them after nearly two weeks of unusu- 

 ally cold weather. The hives with their empty 

 combs were piled uj) against the north side of the 

 barn, and shut up only enough to exclude mice. It 

 was quite late in the spring before my health al- 

 lowed me to give them any attention, and my son 

 was absent in the army. But I was able to use 



every comb in my various operations. The spideis 

 had taken possession of them, and the bee-moth 

 had no chance. Had I closed the hives so tightly 

 that the moth could not have got in them, I should 

 in all probability have lost most of the empty 

 combs. The odor of such hives attracts the moth; 

 and if she can not enter them she will lay her eggs 

 in the most convenient cracks and crevices for her 

 progeny to get access to their proper food. It is 

 much easier for a spider to entrap the moth than it 

 is for her to catch her larv.e when once they have 

 burrowed into the combs. 1 prefer, therefore, to 

 give the moth the freest possible admission, consis- 

 tent with excluding mice, to all hives with empity 

 combs. 



Solomon says: "The spider taketh hold with her 

 hands, and is in kings' palaces." And she is very 

 fond of making her hunting grounds in the combs 

 of our queens' palaces when no longer under the 

 protection of the bees! But we need trust nothing, 

 even to her alacrity, to volunteer in our service. In 

 our barns and woodsheds can always be found in 

 autumn and early spring a supply of those white 

 bags in which the provident mother so nicely tucks 

 up, as in the softest silken cradles, her eggs to be 

 developed in due time by the increasing warmth of 

 thescason. Put asingleoneof these so-called "spider 

 bags " into each hive with empty combs, and be no 

 more anxious about Ihem— you have got " without 

 money and without price " that vigilant fidelity so 

 indispensable in this matter. The spider is now 

 your very good friend. She mounts guard over 

 your combs, and will i)rotect them from the ntoth 

 until the last one has found its proper place with 

 your bees. 



I regret that this information was not given long 

 ago to the beekeeping world. It was intended to 

 appear years ago in the revision which I hoped to 

 make of my work on the " Hive and Honey-Bee. ' 1 

 specially regret that I could not give it last spring 

 when it would have been of so much greater serv- 

 ice. But it is only within a very short time that I 

 have recovered sulliciently from niy old head 

 trouble to take any interest in bees, or to write on 

 any thing connected with them. With gratitude to 

 our heavenly Father, "who forgiveth all our in- 

 iquities and healeth all our diseases," and with 

 hearty good will to all bee-keepers at home and 

 abroad, I sign myself their friend. 



Oxford, Ohio, July I, 1885. L. L. Langstkoth. 



N. B.— July 7, 1885. I have just taken from a loft 

 over my woodshed some old combs of the kind that 

 the moth loves, and that have lain there in nn open 

 nucleus box since 1874! They have not been mo- 

 lested, and the spider-webs adhering to them tell 

 in short the whole of this long story. L. L. L. 



Friend li., the suggestion you make is 

 new to me. I have often seen combs cover- 

 ed with spider-webs, but it did not occur to 

 me, until I luid read the above, tliat such 

 combs are usually found free from the moth. 

 In fact, after thinking the matter over 1 re- 

 member to liave seen many times the combs 

 entirely free from motli.'but 1 never knew 

 just how it was before, ^'ow, this is quite 

 an item, and I don't know but quite an in- 

 vention, if any thing can be called an inven- 

 tion that was iiot invented, or that hivented 

 itself. Ihit for all that, I have been so much 

 accustomed to regarding spider-webs as an 

 indication of slovenly habits, that I feel al- 



