ENEMIES OF BEES. 251 



If the worms, by any means, get the ascendancy in 

 movable-comb hives, the frames should be removed, 

 (p. 243), and the worms destroyed. If proper care has 

 been exercised, such an operation will be seldom needed.* 

 Shallow vessels of sweetened water, placed on the hives 

 after sunset, will often entrap many of the moths. They 

 are so fond of sweets, that I have caught them sticking 

 fast to pieces of moist sugar candy. Whey and sour 

 milk are said to destroy them.f 



I shall close what I have to say upon the bee-moth, 

 with an extract from that accomplished .scholar, and 

 well-known enthusiast in "bee-culture, Henry K. Oliver, 

 of Massachusetts : 



" The ravages of all the other enemiesj of the bee are 

 but a baby bite to the destruction caused by the bee- 

 moth. They are a paltry-looking, insignificant little gray- 

 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 to be able to 

 suggest any effectual means by which to assist the honey- 

 bee and its friends against the inroads of this foe, whose 

 desolating ravages are more despondingly referred to 

 than those of any other enemy. 



" He who shall be successful in devising the means of 

 ridding the bee-world of this destructive and merciless 

 pest, will richly deserve to be crowned ' King Bee,' in 



use this, it will be kept warm by the heat rising to the top of the hive, and will be 

 guarded even in cool nights. Such an entrance may, in many cases, be found a 

 great protection against the moth. 



* Old combs are much the most liable to suffer from the moth. In movable- 

 comb hives, no combs need remain so long in the hive as to have their value 

 seriously impaired. 



t Devices for burning the moth date back to the times of Columella, who 

 recommends placing near the hives, at night, a brazen vessel, with a light burning in 

 it, to destroy the moths resorting to it. 



t Eeport on Bees, to the Essex County Agricultural Society, 1851. 



