Publisht Weekly at 118 Michigan St. 



George W. York, Editor. 



$1.00 a Year — Sample Copy Free. 



38th Year. 



CHICAGO, ILL., FEBRUARY 3, 1898. 



No. 5. 



Bee-Moth or Wax-Moth — Some Experiences. 



BY C. THKILMANN. 



On page 723 (1897), Prof. A. J. Cook has kindly an- 

 swered the questions I have askt him regarding the bee or 

 wax moth, for which we tender him thanks. Some of the 

 ways he describes about the moth 3.re not yet clear to me, or 

 don't agree with my experience_ and that of other bee-keep- 

 ers. He says : We always find, the moths lurking or flying 

 about where there are combs, bee-hives with bees, empty hives 

 or boxes with combs, etc. Some years ago I stood before a 

 big, dry elm in my timber, whose bark was loose one inch or 

 so. By accident I pulled the bark from the tree about 8 

 inches, and to my surprise I saw several bee-moths running 

 around on the inside of the bark, just as they do when dis- 

 turbed elsewhere in their hiding-places. This was nearly a 

 mile from my apiary. Now I am tempted to ask the Profes- 

 sor, How did the moth get there? or where were they hatcht 

 out ? and what did they live on 1 



A bee-keeper tells us in the Acker and Gartenbau-Zeitung 

 that he knows several bee-trees in his vicinity which are 

 stockt with bees nearly every year, but are always destroyed 

 In two to three months by the bee-moths. W. Buechner, from 

 Texas, writes on same page : " I have found dozens of moths 

 in the pupa state mostly in winter time In hollow trees, but 

 nowhere except where a colony of wild bees were destroyed by 

 the moths." This evidence was given In opposition to my 

 theory, but are they not a strong argument on -my side of the 

 question ? 



Those wild bees were surely not Italians, else not all of 

 them would have been destroyed by the moth alone. But I 

 would ask again. Where did these moths come from, and on 

 what did they live the other seven or eight months of the 

 year ? 



By the way, does any one know how old a bee-moth gets 

 to be ? and how far away from her birth or hatching-place 

 she is likely to move or fly ? It would surely Interest many of 

 the readers to know. Will Prof. Cook kindly give us some 

 Information on this question also ? 



I am with the Professor when he says, " If possible she 

 (the moth) goes to the combs, else she lays her eggs as near 

 to them as she can reach, as I have had combs attackt that 

 could not possibly be reacht by the moth." The latter has 

 been just my experience, and therefore, and for other rea- 

 sons, I believe that the moth-eggs are in the pollen of combs 

 before taken from the center of strong colonies of Italians, 

 where it is impossible for moths to lay eggs, and if there were 

 newly-hatcht moths on such combs, they would be visible in 

 three or four days on the combs after taken from the bees. 

 But that is not the case, for it takes from 7 to 12 days in 

 warm weather before any signs of moth-worms are visible on 

 such combs, and then always on the pollen. Besides, my bees 

 carry and clean more or less moths, of all stages of develop- 

 ment, out of their hives all the year around, which I have 



often witnest in my winter cellars, when they are generally 

 left at the entrances of the hive. 



I doubt very much that the moth lays eggs In a tempera- 

 ture of 40° to 42H as in the case of my bee-cellars for five 

 months while the bees are in them, and if any eggs were laid 

 in or near the hives In summer, they would have been hatcht 

 long before real winter set in, in this latitude as a rule about 

 Nov. 10. 



Taking all these connecting evidences, and the fact the 

 moth is a night-caterpillar, whose nightwork is hard to un- 

 derstand and observe, I cannot see any other way than that 

 the bees carry and store the eggs with the pollen, and that 

 the moths live and thrive elsewhere besides at or around bee- 

 hives and apiaries. 



Before I close I will give another experiment I witnest 

 not long ago. As the season here was a poor one, I had to 

 feed my bees for winter, for which I boiled sugar and water 

 together and added some honey until I had a 50-gallon barrel 

 nearly full. This was on the evening of Oct. 13, 1897. The 



Father Joshua Terry, of Utah— See page US. 



barrel was left open about 15 rods away from my home api- 

 ary, in the open air to cool of. The night was warm for the 

 time of year, and on the morning of the 14th the thermometer 

 showed 65^ aboye zero. I went to the sugar-honey barrel 

 and found it nearly covered with dead and dying bee-moths, 

 with their wings spread and fastened to the sweet mass, and 

 after I pulled them out and had thrown them away, I was 



