DISEASES AND ENEMIES. 91 



always faUing, where much brood is coming out ; but here the little grubs 

 only gain an existence by gathering up the fragments, that nothing be 

 lost, according to a deeply impressed law of nature ; and only where a 

 colony is miserably weak, or has lost heart through hopeless queenless' 

 nesa, can they work mischief amongst the combs. Gaining these, they 

 construct as they worm their way through the midrib, a silky tunnel, on 

 the walls of which will be found their dejectamienta, resembling grains of 

 gunpowder, and by degrees the comb is utterly ruined. Although, there- 

 fore, stocks in England are not likely to suffer from wax moths, combs 

 in store may be destroyed from their ravages. The tiny egg is but the 

 100th of an inch in diameter, and, so likely to escape detection. Should 

 the characteristic flannelly line, holding in its texture minute whitish 

 particles, shew itself near the bases of the cells, expose the whole to 

 the fumes of burning sulphur. The sulphurous acid produced, quickly 

 gives the quietus to the little tormentors. No further attention will be 

 necessary if we place the combs out of the reach of the moth. 



The Braula caeca, a small reddish brown louse, about the size of the 

 head of a pin, is a, most singularly formed creature, and no bee keeper 

 possessing a microscope should fail, upon discovering one, to make an 

 examination of it. Its foot is unique. The insects are found on the 

 Continent in immense numbers in some stocks, almost every bee carrying 

 many of them. On imported queens they are not uncommon, and may be 

 propagated here, as in 1874 we had many hundreds in one colony, but 

 by the spring they had disappeared. 



TTasys often annoy the bees considerably ; but it is only with weak 

 stocks (and weak stocks ought only as an exception to be found in a 

 beemaster's apiary) that they can do mischief. Here they often succeed 

 iu entering in such numbers as to much impoverish the hive. Destroy 

 all queen wasps in the spring, as each of these, known by their larger 

 abdomen, start an independent colony ; and treat all nests to turpentine 

 or cyanide of potassium. 



ToaM we have known to fat ben amazingly, while the lightning tongue 

 has caused hundre'ds of over fatigued labourers to disappear, as they have 

 fallen exhausted, at the very door of home, into a tangle of weeds, which 

 afford too good a covert for the enemy. If spent tan be spread around 

 the hives, weeds will be banished and the unwelcome bee fancier also. 



Snails and mice must be kept out, by making the entrance during cold 

 weather too narrow to admit them. In the warmer part of the year the 

 bees themselves make this precaution unnecessary. If mice enter they 

 bite- away the attachments of the comb to get at the honey. The combs 

 'all, and often ruin the whole hive. 



The blue tit (Parus cmrulus) and the great tit (Pants major), during 

 prolonged cold, are often reduced to extremities, and then they are too 

 ready to make a meal of such members of our stock as they may chauee 



