U. S. D. A., B. E. Bui. 75, Part II. A., December 31, 190/ 



MISCELLANEOUS PAPERS ON APICULTURE. 



WAX MOTHS AND AMERICAN FOUL BROOD 



By E. F. Phillips, Ph. D., 

 In Charge of Apiculture. 



INTRODUCTION. 



It has generally been held by bee keepers that, while the wax 

 moths often cause considerable damage by destroying surplus 

 combs and in other ways, they were not an unmixed evil, for by 

 destroying combs infected with brood disease they were supposed to 

 remove the infection. Text-books on apiculture and articles in 

 various bee journals have repeatedly reiterated this statement. 

 Evidently no person has seen fit to look into the question thoroughly, 

 and it is the object of the present paper to record some observations 

 which have been made. 



When a bee larva dies from infection of American foul brood, it 

 decays rapidly, and the mass becomes ropy, so that if a small stick 

 or pin is inserted in the decayed mass and removed, the larval mate- 

 rial adheres to it and will string out for an inch or more. This 

 ropiness of the dead larva is very characteristic of this brood dis- 

 ease. Seemingly this ropiness makes it impossible for the bees to 

 remove the infected material, and when the decayed mass dries down 

 it forms a scale which adheres so tightly to the lower side wall of the 

 cell that it can not be removed without tearing the wax wall. 



As the disease progresses in the colony the various cells of the 

 brood chamber come to contain diseased larva? and, later, scales 

 formed of dried larva?. It is probable that after a cell once comes to 

 contain a diseased larva, it is almost impossible for another larva to 

 reach maturity in a healthy condition, consequently the number of 

 bees which reach the adult condition is constantly reduced and, as the 

 old field bees die and are not fully replaced, the colony becomes weak- 

 ened and finally dies out completely. 



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