438 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



July 



SOMETHING MORE3 ABOUT HONEY- 

 DE"W. 



fRIEND ROOT:— I noticed an article in Glean- 

 ings for June 15, from E. R. Root, about 

 honey-dew. I have had a little experience in 

 that line this season, which may be of intei-est 

 to your readers. About the 8th or 9th of this 

 month T went to the pasture after the cows, when, 

 near the woods, I heard a tremendous roaring of 

 liocs. Thinking- a swarm was passing- over 1 looked 

 in every direction, but could see no bees. As T got 

 nearer the woods, the sound seemed to increase in 

 volume. Just in the edge of the woods 1 saw a 

 young hickory-tiee in blossom, and, thinking the i 

 bees might be working on that, I went up to the I 

 tree, when I found the leaves completely covered 

 with what is known as honey-dew. The tree was 

 fairly alive with bumble-bees, h<mey-bees, yellow- 

 jackets, wasps, hornets, and flies; the leares were 

 so covered with the honej'-dew thej^ had the ap- 

 pearance of being varnished. 



Looking up in the top of the tree I saw myriads of 

 small insects which I took to be the aphides, or 

 plant'lice; but on looking closer I discovered they 

 were small striped bugs, which seemed to be gather- 

 ing honey-dew with the i-est. After looking- around, 

 and finding the honey-dew on oak, maple, elm, and 

 beech trees, I went on over to friend Phelps', tak- 

 ing some of the leaves with me. I found him at 

 home, and together we went back to the woods to 

 see if we could discover the source of the honey- 

 dew. After looking at the trees some time we about 

 concluded that it was a natural secretion of honey 

 in the leaves of the trees. While we were talking, 

 and watching the bees, we noticed a bee running 

 along the branches, stopping from time to time to 

 gather something. Upon pulling down the limbs, 

 and looking close, we discovered they were literally 

 covered with the scaly aphis, or bark-louse. Upon 

 close inspection we discovered a small drop of a 

 clear fluid exuding from the backs of the lice. This 

 was what the bees were gathering on the branches, j 

 and it was falling all the while in a fine spray, it be- 

 ing- visible on our coats when we came out in the 

 sun. Now, this scaly aphis assumes the color of the 

 bark of whatever kind of tree they are working on, 

 and, being quite small, it requires close inspec- 

 tion to see them. I think we would not have seen 

 them but for the bees working on the branches. 

 Now, may not this in a measure account for some 

 of those mysterious falls of honey-dew we hear of ? 

 The flow of honey from this source lasted about two 

 or three weeks, or until the bees began to work on 

 white clover, and perhaps a little longer, as 1 find, 

 in taking ofl' honey, the boxes arc spotted more or 

 less with the honey-dew, while some are filled en- 

 tirely with it. As to quality, all I have to say is, if 

 any person can eat it, he is capable of eating any 

 thing. It looks nasty, it tastes nasty, and it is nasty: 

 and what to do with it I don't know, for it isn't fit 

 for a hog to eat. 



Now, as I am rather ignorant on the subject of 

 entomology, will Prof. Cook, or some one else who 

 is posted, inform us of the dift'erent stages of the 

 bark-louse, and about the time they remain in each 

 stage, and whether they often produce this so-called 

 honey-dew? This is a new thing to me, having nev- 

 er in my life noticed it before, and I would like to 

 know how many different kinds of insects and 

 worms are capable of producing honey-dew. 

 Kingsville, O., June 30, 1884. H. H. PEASE. 



Friend P., we are happy to be able to pre- 

 sent an article from Trot". Cook on this very 

 subject, as yon see. 



THE MAPLE-BAHK LOUSE. 



EAR MR. EDITOR:— From very numeroiis 

 fl ^1 inquiries as to name, habit, and remedies 



•egarding this louse, I have for some weeks 

 ntended to write you; but an overwhelming 

 amount of work has prevented, until your 

 letter drives me to it. Pres. E. Orton writes me that 

 this insect is killing the soft-maples, and wishes a 

 remedy. Mr. O. J. Terrill, from North Ridgeville, 

 says they are affording much nectar, which attracts 

 the bees, and seems excellent, and wishes to know 

 if it is probably wholesome. The editor of the Cold- 

 water (Michigan) Repuhl icon, as^is if there is any 

 way to save the maples. These are samples of a 

 score of inquiries coming thick frona Ohio, Illinois, 

 Indhina, and Michigan. 



DESCUIPTION. 



The maple-tree scale or bark louse {Pulviaaria 

 innumcrahilis, Rath.) consists at this season of a 

 brown scale about five-eighths of an inch long, which 

 is oblong, and slightly notched behind. On the back 

 of the scale are transverse depressions, marking 

 segments. The blunt posterior of the insect is 

 raised by a large dense mass of fibrous cotton-like 

 material, in wliich will be found about 800 small 

 white eggs. These eggs falling on to a dark surface 

 look to the unaided eye like flour; but with a lens 

 they are found to be oblong, and would be pro- 

 nounced by all as eggs at once. This cotton-like 

 egg-receptacle is often so thick as to raise the brown 

 scale nearly a fourth of an inch. These scales arc 

 found on the under side of the limbs of the trees, 

 and are often so thick as to overlap each other. 

 Often there are hundreds on a single main branch 

 of the tree. I find them on basswood, soft and hard 

 maple, and grapevines, though much the more 

 abundant on the maples. 



Another feature, at this mature stage of the in- 

 sect, is the secretion of a large amount of nectar. 

 This falls on the leaves below, so as to fairly gum 

 them over, as though they were varnished. This 

 nectar is much prized by the bees, which swarm 



