224 DISEASES AND ^NEMIES OF BEES 



a safe flight, it will pay the bee-keeper to set them out and to put 

 them back again at night after they have returned to the hive. 



Mice. — The mice sometimes enter the hives in winter, either 

 in cellars or out-door wintered colonies. The author once saw 

 a hive where the little rodents had gnawed through an old 

 bottom board and really had destroyed the colony by eating the 

 combs and disturbing the bees during their winter rest. Both 

 the white-footed wood mice and the common house mice are 

 likely to cause such mischief. Mice and rats are also very 

 destructive in the honey house by destroying surplus combs, 

 sections, etc., and it is well, if possible, to make the honey house 

 mouse proof. 



Skunks. — The normal and preferred food of the skunk is 

 insects and mice. It is then to be expected that bees will suffer 

 where skunks are common. They sometimes learn to scratch 

 at the entrance of the hive and to catch the bees as they rush out. 

 Skunks are also fond of honey, as the writer has found by 

 feeding it to these animals, in confinement. However, they are 

 unable to get at the honey in the hive and the only injury from 

 these animals is to the bees. 



Skunks are of considerable value in keeping down the num- 

 ber of rodents and such insect pests as grasshoppers and crickets, 

 and where they are not too abundant should be encouraged. It 

 is frequently wiser to protect the bees and poultry from the 

 animals and leave them free to war on rats and mice than to 

 destroy the skunks and have to fight the other pests. It is less 

 trouble to guard against the skunks. In localities where they 

 become over-abundant, it may sometimes be advisable to destroy 

 them (Fig. 106). 



Dragon flies, mosquito hawks, snake feeders, or devil's darn- 

 ing needles, all of which are common names for the same insects, 

 are sometimes mentioned as enemies of bees. The trouble seems 

 to be limited to restricted localities, and while there are sometimes 

 instances where individual bee-keepers suffer considerable annoy- 

 ance from these insects, especially from the loss of young queens 



