ON BEFS AND HONEY. 171 



death-head moth, (Sphinx Atropos,) and all the varieties of gal- 

 linaceous birds, have, each and all, "a sweet tooth," and like, 

 very well, a dinner of raw bee. But the ravages of all these 

 are but a baby-bite to the destruction caused by the bee-moth, 

 (Tinea Mellonella.) These nimble-footed little mischievous 

 vermin, may be seen, on any evening, from early May to Octo- 

 ber, fluttering about the Apiary, or running about the hives, at 

 a speed to outstrip the swiftest bee, and endeavoring to effect 

 an entrance into the door way, for it is within the hive that their 

 instinct teaches them they must deposit their eggs. You can 

 hardly find them by day, for they are cunning and secrete 

 themselves. " They love darkness rather than light, because 

 their deeds are evil." They are a paltry-looking, insignificant 

 little grey-haired pestilent race of wax-and honey-eating and 

 bee-destroying rascals, that have baffled all contrivances that 

 ingenuity has devised to conquer or destroy them. 



Your Committee would be very glad indeed to be able to 

 suggest any effectual means, by which to assist the hone^'' bee 

 and its friends, against the inroads of this, its bitterest and most 

 successful foe. whose desolating ravages are more lamented and 

 more despondingly referred to, than those of any other enemy. 

 Various contrivances have been announced, but none have 

 proved efficacious to any full extent, and we are compelled to 

 say that there really is no security, except in a very full, healthy 

 and vigorous stock of bees, and in a very close and well made 

 hive, the door of which is of such dimensions of length and 

 height, that the nightly guards can effectually protect it. Not 

 too long a door, nor too high. If too long, the bees cannot 

 easily guard it, and if too high, the moth will get in over the 

 heads of the guards. If the guards catch one of them his life 

 is not worth insuring. But if the moths, in any numbers, effect 

 a lodgment in the hive, then the hive is not worth insuring. 

 They immediately commence laying their eggs, from which 

 comes, in a few days, a brownish white caterpillar, which en- 

 closes itself, all but its head, in a silken cocoon. This head, 

 covered with an impenetrable coat of scaly mail, which bids 

 defiance to the bees, is thrust forward, just outside of the silk- 

 en inclosure, and the gluttonous pest eats all before it, wax, 



