1S'.»7 



GI.KANINGS IN miu cri.TrRi- 



lion, then' is a niarkcHl cluuijjc. Alfalfa is 

 larjjoly ^nnvn. ami, as a coiiseciuence, coiisid- 

 erahle honey is harvested. As I visit this 

 rej.H'^'" *"> ^^1"-' r^^tiifii trip I will refer to it again 

 later on in these jiajiers. 



San I'ranoisco, Cal., July 10. 



BKKS UKSTROVHU I3V WORMS. 



Oncsfion. — Going out among my bees tho 

 other morning I saw two worms at the front 

 of one hive and three at another. I told a 

 neighbor of this and he said I would have to 

 look out or the worms would destroy my bees, 

 as he lost several colonies in that way some 

 years ago. Are there any wonns which will 

 destroy bees? If so, what are they? 



Aiiszi'cr. — A good colony of bees is never 

 destroyed by any worms which we have in 

 tliese parts, and I doubt if there are in any 

 part of the world. Such expressions as your 

 neighbor gave voice to show the ignorance of 

 very- many regarding the enemies of the honej'- 

 bee and their lack of having studied upon the 

 subject. However, as such statements tend to 

 make the beginner fearful of loss of bees from 

 the ravages of the larvae of the wax-moth, it 

 may not be amiss to treat the subject a little 

 now and then in our bee-papers, explaining 

 the workings of this larva and the only fear 

 we need have of it. In the first place, permit 

 me to say that no one will make the assertion 

 that they have lost bees from moth- wonns un- 

 less that one is either ignorant or careless, or 

 both. The carelessness of such people is 

 shown in that they do not attend to their busi- 

 ness as they should, so they do not discover 

 that their bees are gone till the combs are 

 destroyed by worms ; and they show their ig- 

 norance, because, if well posted in all that is 

 going on inside the hive, at all times, they 

 would know better. I do not propose to tell 

 here what a wax-moth miller is, how the mil- 

 ler or the lan^ae look, how the miller succeeds 

 in getting her eggs in the hive, etc., for this 

 can be found in any of the books on bees and 

 bee-keeping. If any have not one of these 

 books, my advice would be to get one at once, 

 for you can not well understand much that the 

 columns of Gle.a.nin'GS contain unless you 

 know the first principles of bee-keeping. One 

 who can not afford a book can not well afford 

 to keep liees, as the loss of an ignorant per- 

 son with two colonies during one year is 

 much more than the price of a book ; and yet 

 thousands attempt to keep Vjees without a bee- 

 book or a bee-paper. One thing is certain : 

 In most localities where bees can live, if the 

 combs are not occupied with bees, and have 

 not been exposed to a degree of cold as low as 

 1-i degrees above zero, when warm weather 

 comes in the spring to stay we ahvays find the 

 lan-se of the wax-moth upon the combs the 

 most abundant on those which have pollen in 



them, or have had many generations of brood 

 reared in them. When once under headway 

 it takes but a short time to reduce the 

 combs in a whole hive to a mass of webs. 

 Now, the worms can not come into full pos- 

 session of these combs so long as there are 

 bees upon them, although we find here or 

 there a worm which may have eluded the vig- 

 ilance of the l)ees by getting in the septum of 

 the comb, under the l)rood, or by being under 

 the capping, over the heads of the immature 

 bees. But even here they are secure for no 

 certain length of time ; for before they reach 

 maturity the}- are ferreted out and cast from 

 the hive like those our correspondent saw- at 

 the entrance of his hive. The Italian bees 

 l:eep these worms out much better than either 

 the hybrids or blacks — a handful fully protect- 

 ing a w^hole hive of combs, the wonns being 

 kept in submission so long as a few score re- 

 main. If from an}' cause a colony becomes 

 hopelessly queenless, the bees all die of old 

 age in from fifty to sixty days from the time 

 the last bee hatches, if in summer ; and as 

 soon as the bees are gone there is no restraint 

 on the w-orms, thus giving them full sway, 

 and in a short time the combs are ruined. 



Did the worms destroy the colony? Cer- 

 tainly not ; the colony was destroyed by the 

 loss of the queen, spring dwindling, or what- 

 ever the cause was, and the moths came in as 

 an effect. Thus we see to talk of worms de- 

 stroying colonies of bees is fallacious. If we 

 are not extremely careless we shall see from 

 outside observation that something is wrong 

 with any colony, long before the moths can 

 take possession of the combs, even if we do 

 no general manipulation of hives ; and as 

 soon as we see that something is wTong with 

 any colony it is our business, as apiarists, to 

 open the hive and find out what that wrong is, 

 in time to save the colony. But it frequently 

 happens that we lose a part of our bees dur- 

 ing the winter or spring, and wish to preserve 

 the combs till the remainder of our bees in- 

 crease to occupy them, for such combs are of 

 decided worth, even in these days of comb 

 foundation. To keep them from being spoiled, 

 if not entirely destroyed, by the moth-worms, 

 requires close watching, and all should be 

 looked over as often as once a week when 

 warm weather comes. As soon as many 

 worms are seen, hang the combs in a small 

 close room, so the fumes of burning sulphur 

 can- penetrate all parts of them, and burn one 

 pound of sulphur to every 100 cubic feet con- 

 tained in the room. To burn it, get an iron 

 kettle, put some ashes in the bottom, put in a 

 shovel of live coals from the kitchen fire, and 

 pour on the sulphur. Shut the door and leave 

 for two or three days, when every thing that 

 inhabited them will be dead, unless, per- 

 chance, some of the eggs may remain un- 

 hatched. If kept from the miller it is rarely 

 the ca.se that they will need looking after 

 again ; still, I have sometimes had to sulphur 

 again in two or three weeks. 



There is one thing that all can do to prevent 

 the moth nuisance ; and that is, keep every 

 bit of comb not covered by the bees in this 

 sulphur-room or else in the wax-extractor. To 



