GLEAXINUS IN BEE CULTURH 



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ISLE-OF-WIGHT DISEASE 

 Infectious Paralysis is Curable 



BY SAMUEL SIMMINS 



In your issue for Jan. 15, 1912, our friend 

 Mr. D. Macdonald gives a very gloomy view 

 of the above disease; but his conclusions are 

 in some cases based on error. The disease 

 is curable and can be prevented. 



While Mr. Macdonald refers to only a tithe 

 of the large apiaries that have been wiped 

 out, your readers will be interested to know 

 that, almost without exception, the bees 

 thus suffering were mostly blacks or com- 

 mon hybrids; and in many cases no foreign 

 blood had been introduced for many years. 



In 1908 terrible havoc was caused among 

 the bees over a large district in California 

 by a plague of infectious paralysis. New 

 South Wales was visited by a similar trou- 

 ble in 1894 and other parts of Australia in 

 1906, when over a large area it was almost 

 impossible to find an apiary without some 

 trace of it. 



The trouble has been referred to at various 

 times by a number of American contributors 

 to the journals — from Florida, Michigan, 

 Ohio, Mississippi, etc., from 1890 onward. 

 A notice in Gleanings for July 15, 1896, ex- 

 pressed the editor's fear that bee-paralysis 

 was spreading over the whole of the United 

 States; but such has not been the case, ap- 

 parently, and never will be, for just here we 

 come right to the true reason why such a 

 dire event can not result in fact. Bee paral- 

 ysis will never make headway where the 

 majority of owners use only Italians. I am 

 not saying that these bees are absolutely 

 immune; but should they become infected 

 they more readily recover. I believe th£ 

 same jiartial immunity will be found in the 

 case of Carniolans and Cyprians. 



In my own apiary I keep no native bees, 

 and I am exempt from the disease. I know 

 of apiaries, in the center of the ruins of hun- 

 dreds of native stocks; but the former, con- 

 sisting of a high grade of Italians, remain, 

 and do well all the time. 



THE CAUSE OF BEE PARALYSIS. 



This is patent to any observant beekeep- 

 er; and without troubling as to the actual 

 origin, the practical beeowner will see how 

 easily the malady may be overcome. In- 

 stead of being a more serious trouble than 

 foul brood, as many panic-stricken beekeep- 

 ers declare it to be, it is really one of the 

 most simple of any bee disease to deal with. 

 Fortunately neither the queen nor the brood 

 is affected, so that there is a good founda- 

 tion to work on. 



The complaint can not be said to come as 

 a thief in the night. Mr. Macdonald him- 

 self, as well as many others, introduced it 

 to their apiaries by buying swarms from in- 

 fected places. But where not actually con- 



tracted by robbing, it is well known that 

 the disease may exist, and has done so, in 

 an apiary for a whole year, or even longer, 

 before the beekeeper is awake to the reality 

 of the visitation; and he finds he has been 

 asleep for months while the thief has been 

 with him all the time in broad daylight. 



The only reason why the sick bees wander 

 about on the ground, or climb on to the 

 blades of grass, without being able to fly, is 

 because the spiracles are practically closed, 

 and the air sacs and trachfe are congested. 

 This is the cause of the final trouble — con- 

 stipation, or inability to evacuate. 



We therefore need not concern ourselves 

 much about the origin or the definite dis- 

 ease germ causing the first symptoms. We 

 have simply to remove the obstruction by 

 enabling the bee to fill again its air sacs and 

 trachas, while at the same time applying a 

 suitable medicinal agent. 



MOIST HEAT OR GENTLE STEAMING 



has been found to be the basis of recovery, 

 while adding the necessary curative agent. 

 In the British Bee Journal for Oct. 5, 1911, 

 I assured my readers that a paralyzed and 

 bloated bee picked up from the ground, as 

 it crawled helplessly about (in the hot sun 

 at a temperature of 100°) would fly after 

 being held in the closed moist hand for a 

 few seconds. This is a most simple fact; 

 for, though the dry heat could not help the 

 sick bee, the warm moisture immediately 

 acts upon the air-vessels, which are at once 

 filled with life-giving oxygen, and the bee 

 is off on the wing before relieving its over- 

 loaded bowel — an event afterward accom- 

 plished because of the normal pressure then 

 exercised by the intake of air. 



I have offered my numerous unfortunate 

 correspondents a method of effectually 

 steaming the whole contents of the hive 

 with most satisfactory results; and after my 

 letter to the British Bee Journal, as above, 

 the moist-heat basis of cure was repeatedly 

 proved to be a fact in truth and deed. 



Readers found that, after the application 

 of warm moisture, as I had directed, those 

 hitherto helpless bees were enabled to fly 

 again as well they ever did; while in other 

 cases, where my definite treatment of satu- 

 rating the bees (short of drowning them), 

 with a warm curative solution, has proved 

 eminently satisfactory. 



In my own opinion it is sheer folly to de- 

 stroy any thing unless it be old quilts or 

 possibly soiled combs — the latter seldom oc- 

 curring with genuine Isle-of-Wight disease 

 or infectious paralysis. Where soiling has 

 been noticed, it can be only a case of severe 

 dysentery, or this trouble overtaking the 

 sick and degenerate bees. Otherwise the 

 paralysis is often evident with no sign ei- 

 ther of accumulations in the intestines nor 

 any unusually distended state of the abdo- 

 men. 



Even in summer the paralyzed bees are 



