THE AMERICAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 



55 



give will introduce this unwelcome emi- 

 grant to those who have not seen it, and 

 it is hardly necessary to add that it is 

 the hairy larva (a) which does the mischief. 

 The beetle is black, rather prettily varied 

 with white and bright brick-red. 



THE BEE NUISANCE. 



To even refer to the Honey-bee as a 

 nuisance under any circumstance will no 

 doubt be resented by the professional 

 apiarian. But there are neighborhoods 

 where bees are kept in such large numbers 

 that they do, in many instances, become 

 an intolerable nuisance. Under excep- 

 tional circumstances bees actually puncture 

 and work through the skin of tender fruit, 

 but as the fact is strongly denied by those 

 who have not witnessed it, we will pass over 

 this mooted point for the present. All 

 agree that they are ready to avail them- 

 selves of the depredations of other insects 

 in this direction, as well as any accidental 

 wound or crack of a delicious peach or 

 other fruit, and it is not always pleasant to 

 be compelled to be on one's guard in seek- 

 ing a specimen, else gather a handful of 

 bee-stings as a penalty for carelessness. 



Last summer our neighbor's bees visited 

 our peach trees at the time the fruit was 

 ripening and in such numbers that it was 

 positively dangerous to undertake to gather 

 the peaches as they reached maturity from 

 day to day. The bees also bored into the 

 raspberries and blackberries and swarmed 

 in the flower garden, and to cut a spike of 

 scarlet sage, mignonette, or heliotrope with- 

 out first brushing off the bees, was pretty 

 certain to be followed with a thrust of a 

 poisonous lance. But even these annoy- 

 ances could be submitted to with a better 

 grace than the visits of the little honey- 

 gatherers to our greenhouses during the 

 warm days of winter and early spring, be- 

 fore the flowers appear in the garden. 

 There have been days during the past mild 

 winter when so many bees visited the green- 

 houses that few persons would care to mix 

 in their company, or endeavor to pick a 

 flower. We once kept a few stands of 

 bees, but had to dispose of them on account 



of their persistent visits to the greenhouse 

 in the spring, at the time we were most 

 busy working among the plants ; but dispos- 

 ing of our own stock has not been much of 

 a relief, on account of the nearness of neigh- 

 bors who are engaged in bee-keeping. 



We have no inclination to speak ill of 

 the Honey-bee, but there is such a thing 

 as having too many in a neighborhood, and 

 when this occurs it becomes a serious ques- 

 tion whether they should be treated as 

 noxious or beneficial. We fail to see why 

 a bee-keeper should have the right to pas- 

 ture his bees on another man's land any 

 more than his sheep or cattle, especially if 

 they are a nuisance and do harm to his 

 neighbor's property. In some parts of the 

 country, men owning or renting a few acres 

 of land keep bees enough to gather all the 

 honey from the flowers growing in a circuit 

 of several miles, and 'this they claim as a 

 right, but upon what grounds we fail to dis- 

 cover. To keep bees in moderation is 

 certainly not objectionable in the country, 

 but there should be some limit even to the 



Honey-bee. — A. S. F. 



■♦—♦ 



Poultry 7'.r. Imported Cabbage Worm. 

 — A correspondent of the Prairie Fanner, 

 writing from Desmoines, la., states that al- 

 lowing poultry to run among the cabbage 

 plants has proved of no avail against Pieris 

 rapce, and cites a case in which hens with 

 young chickens were tied among the plants, 

 and the plants covered with corn meal. 

 " The chickens," he writes, " apparently 

 never touched a worm, even when covered 

 with meal ; nor did the hens drive off or 

 capture the butterflies that hovered about 

 in such numbers." 



Silkworm Eggs : Silk Culture. — We 

 are continually receiving requests for Silk- 

 worm eggs ; also for information on the 

 rearing and culture of Silkworms. We 

 have no eggs to dispose of and would re- 

 fer correspondents to the Department of 

 Agriculture which doubtless has, or to Mr. 

 L. S. Crozier of Bayou Sara, La. We 

 would also refer for general information on 

 the subject to our " Manual of Instructions 

 on the Production of Silk," being special 

 report No. 1 1 of the Department of Agri- 

 culture, which can be obtained upon appli- 

 cation to the Commissioner. 



