76 



THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER 



May 



sary. This is one of the best remedies 

 known. 



Naphtahn. — This is used chiefly as a 

 preventive. Simply by putting some 

 pieces in the hive and letting it evapo- 

 rate. 



Lysol. — As it does not evaporate 

 readily it has to be used as a syrup. 

 Dissolve it in 20 times its weight of 

 water and spray the combs, bees and in- 

 side of the hive with an atomizer. Re- 

 peat every few days until a cure is ef- 

 fected. The odor of the lysol is very 

 distasteful to the bees and they some- 

 times abscond when thus treated. 



Creolin. — One of the best remedies 

 known. To be used in three ways. 

 (i): As a spray. At the dose of half a 

 teaspoonful per liter of water. (2): As 

 feed. One teaspoonful per liter of feed. 

 (3): It can also be placed in a box as 

 described above and left to evaporate. 

 Its chief use is as a disinfectant, in the 

 proportion of two teaspoonfuls to a liter 

 of water; to wash the hands of the oper- 

 ator, the tools, frames, hives, etc. 



Mr. Tenouillet also described what 

 he calls the De Layens or American 

 method. That is what we call the Mc- 

 Evoy method. As it is well known, I 

 shall not describe it. 



COMMENTS. 



Substantially, all these remedies are 

 applied in two ways, externally as spray 

 or evaporation, and internally in syrup 

 or honey given as feed. 

 Concerning the external remedies, I 

 should give the preference to those that 

 evaporate. Spraying is a disagreeable 

 operation for the bees and operator. It 

 is impossible to reach everywhere and 

 every bee. The vapors reach not only 

 everywhere in the hive 'except inside 

 of the sealed cells of honey), but also 

 the interior organs and the blood of 

 the bees through their respiratory or- 

 gans. As to which one to choose, there 

 ma^ not be any great difference. I 

 have used camphor, creolin and crude 

 carbolic acid against bee paralysis with 

 equally good results. That is, no dis- 

 ease as long as the remedy is there, but 

 it reappears more or less about six or 

 eight weeks after it is discontinued. I 

 do not use any remedy in summer, be- 

 cause their vapors give the honey a 

 bad tast, and I don't want to loose my 

 surplus. However, the disease has 

 diminished little by little every year, 

 until it is now insignificant. In using 

 creolin or carbolic acid, only a spoon- 



ful should be given, otherwise the bees 

 might abscond. 



Concerning the internal remedies the 

 difficulty is to get the bees to take it. 

 Many of the above mentioned remedies 

 have such a bad taste that it is next 

 to an impossibility to get the bee to 

 take it unless it be in such a small pro- 

 portion as to render them almost use- 

 less. I should give preference to the 

 naphtol. It has no taste, or but very 

 little, and is not appreciably poisonous 

 to the bees. As it will not dissolve in 

 water, it is necessary to use pure alco- 

 hol first. Never use wood alcohol, as 

 it is highly poisonous and has an abom- 

 inably bad taste. 



The most remarkable feature of the 

 subject, is that the European apiarists 

 succeed in curing foul-brood by the use 

 of drugs, and the Americans don't. 

 But before going into that subject, let 

 us first consider the disease itself. 



This, like the majority of diseases, not 

 only of bees, but also of higher ani- 

 mals and the human race, is caused by 

 a kind of minute living beings called 

 bacilli, (bacilli is the plural and bacillus 

 the singular form.) 



The special kind of bacillus causing 

 foul-brood in bees is a rod-shaped or 

 stick-shaped being about one six-thous- 

 andth of an inch long and a thickness 

 only about one seventh of its length. 

 They multiply in a very singular man- 

 ner. As long as the blood or juices or 

 tender parts of bees or brood last, they 

 continually grow in length, and when 

 a certain length is attained they divide 

 in the middle and what was one long 

 bacillus is now two short bacilli. These 

 in turn, grow in length and divide like 

 predecessors. But when the food gives 

 out the rod-like being ceases to divide 

 and breaks into a number of smaller, 

 round, grain-like things called soores. 

 These spores are very hardy in some 

 respects. They can resist very high 

 and very low temperature at least for 

 a short time, and also very powerful 

 chemical substances, while the rod-shap- 

 ed bacilli are comparatively delicate and 

 easily destroyed. 



However, the experiments of Dr. 

 Howard have shown that a certain 

 amount of moisture is necessary to the 

 existence of these spores. In dry air 

 and sunshine, they die in a day or two 

 at most. In honey, they live indefinite- 

 ly, without developing into bacilli. The 

 water contained in the honey furnishes 

 the necessary moisture. The formic 



