MONTANA INSECT PE^STS 1945-1946 19 



DISEASE CONTROL 



Disease control is the prime purpose of the bee inspection 

 service. However, this inspection cannot be conducted as in many 

 other states, because funds and personnel are limited. Hence, it 

 has been necessary to set the limited objective of eliminating, as 

 far as possible, disease sources which are not properly controlled. 

 Our worst and most common bee disease is American foulbrood. 

 Amateur and non-professional operators often know little or 

 nothing about this disease. Therefore, the principal problem is to 

 control sources of American foulbrood in hives managed by these 

 two groups of operators. 



It must be kept in mind that the inspection records reflect 

 primarily the disease condition among bees operated by amateur 

 beekeepers. Since there are neither personnel nor funds available 

 to allow the inspection of more than a small portion of the com- 

 mercial or professionally- operated bees, it is necessary that most 

 of these operators control disease in their own apiaries. In a lim- 

 ited way, the inspection of commercial apiaries has been very 

 necessary. In most cases, though, professional apiarists have seen 

 the necessity of taking care of their own problem and have clean- 

 ed up and salvaged infected products and equipment as efficiently 

 as possible. 



While box hives, or hives with cross combs, were at one time 

 great potential sources of disease in the State, at the present time 

 there are few beekeepers who use this type of equipment. As a 

 whole, the disease problem in Montana looks much brighter than 

 in 1941 when inspection was reinstated after eight years' cessa- 

 tion. In 1941, 26 per cent of all the colonies inspected in Montana 

 were found to have American foulbrood. By 1946, this figure had 

 been cut to 4.8 per cent. However, this achievement could never 

 have been reached without the splendid help of the commercial 

 beekeepers. 



LAW ENFORCEMENT 



The high prices paid for honey and beeswax during World 

 War II and the good honey crops produced in Montana in the 

 early years of this decade painted a pretty picture for beekeepers 

 outside Montana who had been having poor crops for several 

 j^ears because of overstocked territories. With Montana as an ap- 

 parent land of plenty, beekeepers desired to import thousands 

 of colonies from outside areas. Some of these apiarists complied 

 with Montana laws, and some attempted to move bees into the 

 State in defiance of them. Checking on reported illegal movement 

 of bees in the past two years has taken a great deal of the inspec- 

 tor's time which might have been spent controlling disease infec- 



