1908 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



1433 



them, in regularly established ways. They were 

 seen to be patroling all crevices, and were quite 

 active about the entrances to the colonies. Wher- 

 ever the ants and bees came in contact the latter 

 appeared very excited. This excitement was man- 

 ifested by an incessant buzzing of the wings, 

 emitting a peculiar note on the part of the bee 

 indicative of her irritated yet helpless condition. 

 The ants boldly approach the bees as the latter 

 seek to patrol the entrance or other opening, and, 

 catching the bees by the legs, wage an assault. 

 The bees, enraged, frantically keeping up their 

 buzzing, helplessly run about in an effort to re- 

 lease themselves, frequently being forced to take 

 to their wings before being able to ward off the 

 attacks of their little adversaries. So far as I was 

 able to observe, the general appearance being to 

 the contrary notwithstanding, the bees in all 

 cases were holding their own, the judicious cau- 

 tion of the ants leading them to refrain from ac- 

 tually entering and invading to any great extent 

 the colony. Subsequent examinations of the in- 

 teriors of the colonies have confirmed this obser- 

 vation. In one colony the ants had established 

 a regular runway across the bottom-board of the 

 hive, but in only one instance were ants to be 

 seen crawling on the combs of one of the colo- 

 nies of bees, and then only two ants were ob- 

 served making their way along the lower edge of 

 a comb. 



One of the colonies, perhaps unfortunately for 

 itself, but certainly fortunately for the purpose of 

 my observations, contained several extended crev- 

 ices half an inch or so in width across the corner. 

 As might be expected, the bees had tried to fill 

 these crevices with propolis and wax quite as like- 

 ly in defense against robber bees as perhaps 

 against the ants. There were, however, a suffi- 

 cient number of openings to permit of the egress 

 of bees which were continually passing out and 

 irritatedly buzzing as previously described. On 

 removing a wedge from one of these crevices, 

 thus enlarging the opening, the colony immedi- 

 ately threw out an extra force of police bees in 

 defense against the ants; but, to my surprise, 

 these bees did not seem angered toward me. In 

 fact, I used every reasonably means to anger them 

 individually, going so far as to pin them down 

 to the hive-cover with my finger, all of which 

 only apparently contributed to their antagonism 

 against the ants. This, I say, was surprising to 

 me, for it was somewhat contrary to my previous 

 experience with bees when antagonized by ants. 



When in charge of the experimental work in 

 apiculture at the Montana Agricultural Station 

 during the years 1901 to 1905, on several occa- 

 sions the apiary became troubled with ants. One 

 summer this was particularly true, and we observ- 

 ed the ants, which, of course, were much larger 

 than the Argentine ant, catch and literally cut 

 up live bees about the entrances and carry them 

 away to their nests. This so enraged the bees 

 that it was almost impossible to work with them, 

 and for this reason rather than from any particu- 

 lar fear that the ants might overcome the bees, 

 we resorted to the use of carbon bisulphide in 

 the nests, which had been steadily growing until 

 the entire apiary, which was, of course, a small 

 one (less than fifty colonies), was encircled. This 

 proved itself an effective remedy against the ants 

 in question; but in the case of the Argentine ant 



the lack of a centralized nest or colony, coupled 

 with its migratory habits, of course makes such 

 a remedy hard of effective application. 



From the data here presented, which, of course, 

 is not very extended, and so can not be regarded 

 as conclusive, it would seem that the danger of 

 the Argentine ant as a pest in the apiary would in 

 most instances lie in their interference with the 

 work of the bees rather than in actually overcom- 

 ing and destroying strong colonies. Fortunately 

 it is the habit of the bees to store their honey as 

 remotely as possible from the entrance of the col- 

 ony; and if the bees are kept in well-made hives 

 in which there are no crevices for entrance on the 

 part of the ants, a strong colony can undoubted- 

 ly defend itself, there being an ample number of 

 bees for the patrol of the entrance. It may be 

 true that, in the case of very weak colonies, inca- 

 pable of defense, the ants might be able to gain 

 an entrance, and thus destroy, starve, or force the 

 bees to vacate. Indeed, there is one and perhaps 

 two empty hives in the apiary, under our obser- 

 vation, which might lead one to this supposition. 

 The apiary, on the other hand, is a neglected one, 

 and there may be other causes for the loss of the 

 colonies in question. On examining these emp- 

 ty hives we were somewhat surprised to find in 

 one of them sealed honey alike undisturbed by 

 the ants or robber bees. This condition of af- 

 fairs might be due, however, to the fact that the 

 honey cited was granulated, and so in a measure 

 inaccessible. In any event, from present evi- 

 dences we can not feel entirely safe in attributing 

 the loss of these colonies to the Argentine ants, 

 although the ants may have been a factor. We 

 believe that the ants might and do become trou- 

 blesome enough to the bees of an apiary to inter- 

 fere seriously with the field work of the bees, and 

 so prove themselves the cause of almost inesti- 

 mable loss to the bees and apiarist alike. A fact 

 readily appreciated must also be borne in mind 

 — that the annoyance and even injury so persis- 

 tent a pest as the Argentine ant would accomplish 

 about the honey-house and shop of an apiary 

 would be considerable. This would be especial- 

 ly manifest in the handling and storage of honey, 

 particularly in the event of the production and 

 care of comb honey. We have known of apia- 

 ries in this State where the common black anls 

 have been very troublesome about solar wax-ex- 

 tractors, necessitating the placing of the legs of 

 the extractor in cans of oil. It is needless to con- 

 jecture what the Argentine ant might do or be- 

 come under similar conditions. In any event it 

 must be rernembered that our California infesta- 

 tion of the Argentine ant is as yet largely in the 

 stage of simply a household pest, and that, when 

 the acute stage of the infestation of orchard and 

 field, found now in Louisiana and Mississippi, is 

 reached on this coast, our attitude toward the Ar- 

 gentine ant as a possible pest of the commercial 

 apiary may be changed. The development and 

 growth of our ant problem is one which every 

 apiarist in common with the orchardist and 

 agronomist ought to and will watch with interest. 



[These ants have been described in Gleanings 

 before by Mr. O. O. Poppleton aud myself. The 

 remedy is to put the hives on benches, the sup- 

 ports of which are set in a pot of tar. There are 

 only a few places in this country where these ants 

 will prosper — that is to say, in sub-tropical sec- 



