1919 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



305 



the cells. But when the breeding 

 season comes again, those cells are 

 shortened to the proper length for 

 breeding, and that is when the bees 

 need the ventilation and the room. 

 In winter more bees cluster, be- 

 tween the combs, under the honey 

 than in the narrow spaces, and the 

 wintering is better. No one has yet 

 been able to overthrow this position. 

 This discussion of large brood- 

 chambers has been practically forced 

 upon us, by enquirers, and has been 

 especially urged by Frank C. Pellett, 

 who became enthusiastic over our 

 methods when he joined the staff of 

 the American Bee Journal. — C. P.Da- 

 dant. 



Do Ordinary Cryptogams Cause May 



Disease, Wing Paralysis and 



Trembling of Bees ? 



THE knowledge concerning the 

 diseases of adult bees is at pres- 

 ent very precarious, said Dr. 

 Morgenthaler, a member of the Bac- 

 teriological Institute of the Liebe- 

 feld, near Berne, and since the causes 

 are not positively known, their di- 

 verse forms are not easily distin- 

 guished from one another. It is not 

 known whether the ordinary symp- 

 toms — swollen abdomen, inability to 

 fly, trembling and darkening of color, 

 which appear isolated or combined — 

 belong to one and the same disease. 

 The discovery of parasites made by 

 Zander has not yet supplied the ex- 

 pected explanation. 



The great interest which all bee- 

 keepers take upon this question of 

 mortality of bees, in large numbers, 

 sometimes causing complete de- 

 struction, justifies the analysis of the 

 work of Turesson. 



This Swedish author, in experi- 

 ments made in 1916, examined the 

 toxic action of cryptogams upon man 

 and mammiferous animals. He found 

 that certain fungi which are very 

 common may exercise a poisonous 

 action, more or less powerful, upon 

 the organs. In rabbits, fed with cul- 

 tures of different cryptogams, he 

 noted the following symptoms : At 

 first, irritation of the nervous sys- 

 tem, which manifested itself with 

 trembling and spasms, a greater car- 

 diac activity; then a weakness to 

 such an extent that they could not 

 stand upon their legs; finally paraly- 

 sis and death. Paralysis attacked 

 also the digestive tube, in such mode 

 that the intestines could not dis- 

 charge anything, and a constipation 

 was produced which caused a great 

 dilation of the stomach and of the 

 rectum. Turesson thinks that too' 

 little attention has been paid in the 

 past to the toxic influence of crypto- 

 gams and that, for example, some of 

 them cause cerebro-spinal meningitis 

 of domestic animals. 



Their toxic action is due to the 

 fact that these fungi produce sub- 

 stances related to phenic acid and 

 have much analogy with the acids 

 of lichens, which are also poisonous 

 for various animals. The resem- 

 blance of the morbid symptoms de- 

 scribed, with those often observed 

 in the diseases of adult bees, induced 



Turesson to examine more closely 

 the influence of nutrition with the 

 fungi of mould. He enclosed about a 

 dozen bees in each of 13 cages suffi- 

 ciently roomy and fed the ones with 

 honey mixed with a determined 

 amount of various fungus of mould; 

 the others, to serve as checks, with 

 pure honey. The result was that one 

 species of fungus, after 3 days, the 

 others after 4 and until 8 days, had 

 killed them all, while those fed with 

 pure honey were still in good condi- 

 tion. The dying or dead bees had 

 nearly all a swollen abdomen, caused 

 by a plethora of the stomach or in- 

 testine; presenting therefore the 

 symptoms of the May disease; only 

 with the fungus that had caused 

 death in 3 days did the bees appear 

 to have a normal, non-tumefied ab- 

 domen, because in that case the 

 venom had acted too speedily and 

 the bees had died before having ab- 

 sorbed a large amount of food. The 

 other symptoms of the malady were 

 as follows: Paralysis of the wings, 

 unsteady walking and trembling. The 

 bees often rubbed their abdomen 

 with their legs and thus acquired the 

 shiny black color. 



Five different fungi were employed 

 in the tests; 3 species of the genus 

 penicillium, the ordinal mucor mu- 

 cedo, and the cladosporium her- 

 barum, a frequent fungus which be- 

 longs to the black fungi, and had 

 been produced in part on dead bees 

 and in part on combs of honey. It is 

 probable that other kinds may be 

 found of varying toxicity and even 

 more poisonous; the different species 

 are of variable toxicity and it is even 

 possible that some subdivisions of 

 the same species may behave in dif- 

 ferent modes, and that a fungus may 

 be fairly lenitive in one region, 

 while the same variety becomes viru- 

 lent in another, by a greater produc- 

 tion of poison. Thus, according to 

 Turesson, the question is not, in re- 

 gard to the mortality of bees, of a 

 properly called infection, or of para- 

 sites the germs of which develop in 

 the body of the individual bee, but 

 of an intoxication by means of a 

 chemical poison. In such a case the 

 poison does not remain within the 

 fungus, but is transmitted to the body 

 upon which it acts. 



It is therefore possible that even 

 sweetened water in mouldy combs be 

 poisonous, even after the fungi have 

 been removed. The toxic substance 

 is not destroyed by the heat that 

 may melt combs. The fungus of 

 mould does not develop on virgin 

 combs ; on the other hand, every bee- 

 keeper knows 'that a mode of produc- 

 tion of mould are the used combs, 

 which are sometimes kept in an ill- 

 ventilated closet. 



The moist heat which predominates 

 within the colony is favorable to the 

 development of fungi. The bees 

 must certainly use great cleanliness 

 to avoid mould in their home and 

 they need also ample ventilation of 

 the hive, in summer and winter. The 

 fall feeding with sweetened water 

 should not be provided too late, be- 

 cause at that time the food cannot 

 be sufficiently condensed, from which 

 an increase of moisture is produced. 



The combs hanging in winter outside 

 of the cluster are especially exposed 

 to the possibility of moulding. This 

 is one of the reasons why the symp- 

 toms of poisoning are more particu- 

 larly and more frequently manifested 

 in spring, when the bees begin to use 

 the food in those combs, or even if 

 they only polish them with their 

 tongues. 



This is, in brief, the summary of 

 the work of Turesson, who believes 

 he has discovered in the fungus of 

 mould the cause of the May disease, 

 of paralysis of the wings and of the 

 trembling. Although mould has been 

 considered bad and noxious by bee- 

 keepers, this work exposes some 

 viewpoints that are quite new, to 

 judge of its influence upon the mor- 

 tality of bees in large numbers. The 

 future will demonstrate whether his 

 opinion is just, or whether, as with 

 the nosema, the toxic influence of 

 the mould is not too much dwelt 

 upon. The experiments made with 

 bees in cages are not sufficient to 

 elucidate the matter; it is necessary 

 that the experiment should pass 

 through the observing of the api- 

 arist. The imprisoned bees find 

 themselves in abnormal conditions 

 and the evidences upon the pertur- 

 bations of digestion should be judged 

 with increased care. In fact, a nor- 

 mal bee, aside from her love of 

 cleanliness, will avoid discharging 

 her excrements in the hive, or, in this 

 case, in the cage; this alone is al- 

 ready sufficient to disturb the diges- 

 tive functions from their natural 

 process. It is true, on the other 

 hand, that the checks made, by feed- 

 ing some imprisoned bees with pure 

 honey, who remained healthy, be- 

 sneak in favor of the Turesson opin- 

 ion. 



It would be most important, I be- 

 lieve for beekeeping, if it was con- 

 firmed that the mortality, in large 

 numbers, of the bees, be by intoxica- 

 tion and not by infection produced 

 by bacteria or by nosema; this espe- 

 cially in my opinion as regards the 

 cure. In the apiarian publications 

 are found frequent reports of favora- 

 ble results obtained with curing 

 liquid remedies. The British Bee 

 Journal interests itself exhaustively 

 in this question. Each number of 

 the past year contains one or more 

 articles giving proofs, whether suc- 

 cessful or not, of cure of the Isle of 

 Wight disease, which yet remains 

 unexplained and is very disastrous. 

 The results were lately so favorable 

 that their Department of Agricul- 

 ture took interest in the matter and 

 offered a remedy that was recom- 

 mended, Bacterol. Since the nosema 

 was for a long time considered a ■ 

 cause of the disease, one could rea- 

 sonably doubt the efficacy as cure 

 of a chemical substance, since these 

 spores are much more resistent, 

 against such an influence, than the 

 intestines of the bee ; it would seem 

 rather strange that a remedy might 

 destroy those spores without being 

 noxious to the bees in any way. 

 Lately, it has been demonstrated, by 

 Anderson and Rennie, that the Isle 

 of Wight disease has nothing to do 

 with the nosema. 



