1920 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



305 



INSECTICIDES 



By A. F. Bonney 



I have devoted a great deal of at- 

 tention to the question of insecti- 

 cides, and in connection with the let- 

 ter from Mr. Francis, head chemist 

 for Park, Davis & Co., of Detroit, 

 Mich., propose to give the result of 

 many experiments. 



One of the very best insecticides I 

 ever found was permanganate of pot- 

 ash in connection with formaldehyde. 

 This was all right until the increase 

 in price, due to the war, made the use 

 of it prohibitive. Next came the for- 

 maldehyde candles, but they are now, 

 also, too expensive. 



I knew the use of cyanide of potas- 

 sium and sulphuric acid, but as one 

 whiflf of the fumes of this combina- 

 tion would be instant death to man 

 or beast, it is not available. If a drop 

 of the strong prussic acid were put 

 on a man's tongue he would be dead 

 before he struck the ground. I have 

 exposed combs to the moths, then 

 sprayed the combs with gasoline. 

 This is effective, but laborious, while 

 dipping the combs costs far too much, 

 so much of the fluid is lost by evap- 

 oration and what is held on the 

 combs. Also, there is danger of ex- 

 plosion, if the fumes reach an open 

 flame. 



Burning powdered sulphur or the 

 lump brimstone is by far the quick- 

 est, safest and, next to the sulphur 

 dioxide made with sodium bisulphide, 

 is, in my experience, decidedly more 

 efficacious, owing I think, to the large 

 amount of moisture thrown ofT ; but 

 the bisulphide costs a matter of 25 

 cents a pound, wholesale, and sul- 

 phuric acid is, just now, expensive, 

 while sulphur and brimstone cost but 

 about 6 cents. 



To gain as much moisture as pos- 

 sible in burning brimstone, or sul- 

 phur, for they are both the same, 

 chemically, I improvised as follows : 

 Take a big dish pan, s t it on three 

 bricks, and into it put some water. 

 Into this set a much smaller dish, 

 metal, of course, and no soldered 

 seams. Fill this inner dish nearly 

 full of sulphur and set fire to it. This 

 for a large room, while for a barrel 

 a much smaller outfit will do. This 

 method makes the use of burning sul- 

 phur safe, and we get the moisture 

 from the water surrounding the inner 

 dish, which is 1 eated by the burning 

 of the sulphur. 



There is no -se trying to fumigate 

 a lot of hives open only at the tops 

 of the piles, so hives which are to be 

 idle in warm weather are arranged 

 as follows. Lay down a small piece 

 of half-inch board, and set a hive on 

 it with the board under one end of the 

 hive. Continue piling hives with 

 pieces of board under opposite ends, 

 and when you have finished, your 

 pile will be level on top and there will 

 be free circulation of the deadly gas 

 to every part of the hives in the pile. 



Several piles of hives in a -tight 

 room can in this way be all fumi- 

 gated at once. It is a good, effica- 

 cious method, and cheap, for a couple 

 of pounds of sulphur is sufficient to 

 saturate a room 10x20x10 feet in size 

 with sulphur dioxide. The fumiga- 



tion may be begun at night, and by 

 morning it will be finished. 



The Francis letter follows : 



"Turning to the chemical question 

 which you have raised, allow me to 

 say that I can thoroughly under- 

 stand that everybody is looking for 

 some kind of an insecticide which 

 will clean out moths and eggs in 

 combs. If I knew of something which 

 would be "fool proof," non-poisonous 

 and would always be sure to get every 

 single egg, I would certainly give my 

 brother beekeepers the advantage. 



I am convinced that there "ain't no 

 such thing" — but some things are very 

 much better than others. 



Sulphur dioxide is probably about 

 as nearly effective in destroying both 

 worms and eggs as anything that 

 could be used, but it is just a ques- 

 tion as to how the beekeeper can use 

 it to proper advantage and use 

 enough of it. 



When ordinary brimstone or sul- 

 phur is burned in a barrel or some 

 other tight receptacle and the open 

 hive is set over it, you will do a 

 fairly effective job in destroying the 

 eggs or insects, provided you get 

 enough sulphur and, most important 

 of all, provided there is an opening 

 or a hole that allows the sulphur 

 fumes to reach the egg fully, If the 

 egg happens to be sealed up behind a 

 wall of wax or propolis, nothing of 

 this kind will prove effective, for the 

 simple reason that it cannot reach the 

 egg. 



Aside from producing sulphur diox- 

 ide by the above method of burning 

 sulphur or brimstone, there is a sec- 

 ond or chemical method as follows: 



Procure a small quantity of sodium 

 bisulphite from some dealer in chem- 

 ical supplies and also some ordinary 

 commercial sulphuric acid. Place a 

 handful of bisulphite in an earthen- 

 ware bowl, put it in the bottom of a 

 box or barrel, add enough water to 

 about half cover the crystals, and 

 then pour on sulphuric acid. A chem- 

 ical reaction takes place which sets 

 sulphurous acid free in the form of 

 a vapor or gas. One could arrange a 

 tight box of this kind with an open- 

 ing at the top that a hive would just 

 set over after the bottom is re- 

 moved; or. on the other hand, one 



could put a couple of ounces of so- 

 dium bisulphite crystals in an ordi- 

 nary saucer, and a tablespoonful of 

 water, slip it through the opening in 

 the front of the hive just as it stands 

 with the bottom-board on, and then 

 pour in about two ounces of commer- 

 cial sulphuric acid. The saucer con- 

 taining the ingredients could then be 

 pushed well under the frames and a 

 tight board could be placed over the 

 opening to prevent the gas from es- 

 caping. 



As you undoubtedly know by ex-, 

 perience, gasoline is absolutely dead- 

 ly to any insect or insect egg, pro- 

 vided only that it can be brought in 

 contact with the egg. Gasoline 

 fumes will not kill the eggs. 



Another method would be to take 

 the bee hives as they ordinarily stand, 

 tightly seal, remove the strip so as 

 to expose the full length opening in 

 front of the hive, slip a saucer under 

 it and in this put a couple of ounces 

 of potassium cyanide. This is a dead- 

 ly poison and it must be handled 

 with care in the matter of getting any 

 to the mouth. Allow the edge of the 

 saucer to project slightly from the 

 mouth of the hive and quickly pour 

 in a mixture of about two ounces 

 equal parts of water and sulphuric 

 acid. The acid sets free from the 

 potassium cyanide the deadly gas 

 ordinarily known as hydrocyanic acid. 

 The opening in the hive must be 

 quickly stopped up. 



As you know, hydrocyanic acid gas 

 is used in enormous quantities to de- 

 stroy weevils in mills and elevators. 

 The gas quickly gets into all the 

 the cracks and does a clean job of it. 

 I cannot speak authoritatively as to 

 how effective it may be in destroying 

 all the eggs." J. M. FRANCIS. 



WIRING COMBS 



By Frank M. Gift 



The foundation in my frames does 

 not "sag." My method is to nail a 

 large number of frames in advance 

 and hang them up to season, shrink 

 and dry for at least 5 or 6 weeks; 

 then I wire them, 4 horizontal and 2 

 cross wires, using the top and bottom 

 holes for the latter. To even the 



Pgskct of combs presented to the Ontario beekeeping department by J. L. Byer. A basket of 

 cappings was placed in 3 super to be cleaned by the bees, with the above result. 



