232 



ing flowers, they may be carrying mites upon the ex- 

 terior of their bodies, some of which are shed upon the 

 blossoms they visit, perhaps to be picked up by other 

 chance visitors to the same flowers. 



Whether this means of dissemination is a frequent 

 one is difficult to determine ; so far as I know no direct 

 evidence has yet been obtained, and this question 

 remains to be investigated. 



Danger frmn Crawling Bees. 



Anxiety on behalf of healthy bees in an apiary is 

 sometimes caused by the knowledge that a stock has 

 crawled extensively, that bees have wandered all 

 around, climbing grasses and flower stems, and getting 

 lost amongst herbage. When the weather is warm, 

 these survive over night, are revived by the heat of the 

 following day, and this may continue for a period. 

 Although it is quite true that Acarine infestation spreads 

 usually in the cluster within the hive, no one can regard 

 lightly the presence of hundreds and sometimes thou- 

 sands of crawlers in the immediate vicinity of healthy 

 stocks. The presence in the apiary of a few crawler 

 traps which could be used in such an emergency even 

 temporarily would go a long way to diminish this 

 worry. The bees captured should be destroyed. 



Robbing Bees. 



When a stock weakened by disease or from any other 

 cause is in possession of stores, robbing may be expected 

 to take place. 



As a means of infection, there is no question but that 

 robbing plays a very important part. The weak stock 

 may be a diseased one ; it very often is so, and robbers 

 attacking such a stock inevitably come into contact 

 with infested bees and doubtless in so doing carrj- 

 away to their own hives parasites on their bodies. 

 Further, in robbing under such circumstances there is 

 a mingling of bees from different stocks, amongst which 

 there is always the possibility of the presence of a 

 proportion of infested bees, so that even although the 

 weak stock under attack is free from disease, the situa- 



