132 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



going to get the poison as long as the plant lice are around." 

 This, of course, precludes, as the gentleman suggests, that 

 eliminating spraying while fruit trees are in bloom will entirely 

 save the bees. Moreover, plant lice are present on other than 

 fruit trees. As is well known, plant lice (aphids) eject sweetish 

 liquid (honeydew) as Mr. A. says, "which is highly prized by 

 bees. The honeydew drops on the leaves below; then the bees 

 suck it up and also the poison with it. Hence all our trouble. 

 I have watched this very closely this year [1914] in my own 

 yard, on oak, cherry and maple trees." This may explain cases 

 of alleged late poisoning and the fact that bees have been 

 noticed about fruit trees about to be sprayed a week or more 

 after the petals had all fallen. 



Symptoms of Spray Poisoning of Bees. 



The symptoms collected below are given as nearly as possible 

 in the words of their authors. It will be noticed that they have 

 much in common. 



The "New England Veteran" ^ paints a most descriptive 

 picture of the appearance of a supposedly poisoned apiary. 

 It is "not pleasant to see the yard covered with little bunches 

 of bees quivering in agony of arsenical poison, for arsenate 

 of lead is 'slow and sure;' the torture may continue for hours. 

 A neighbor came in haste ... for his onion bed was, as he 

 expressed it, 'covered' with dead and dying bees. The poison 

 is quite attractive to the bee, either because of the sweetness 

 in the form of lead, or, as some believe, b}^ the mixture of an 

 adhesive like the 'molasses' from the sugar beet." 



Similarly in a letter of June 16, 1915, a correspondent in 

 West Newton says: "Each morning there are many bees, 

 sometimes two hundred or more, on the ground, unable to fly, 

 but trembling around until they die." This might be expected 

 when, as one writer (Middleborough) has said: "The bees 

 come home with white lead on their backs; in the morning you 

 can see a quart [of bees] on the ground [in front of their hives]." 



> "Gleanings in Bee Culture," 1914, Vol. 42, pp. 91-93. 



