246 THE BEE KEEPEK'S MANUAL. 



lery, as well to obtain more room as to procure an addition- 

 al supply of food. Its augmented size exposing it to attacks 

 from surrounding foes, the wary insect fortifies its new 

 abode with additional strength and thickness, by blending 

 with the filaments of its silken covering, a mixture of wax 

 and its own excrement, for the external barrier of a new 

 gallery, the interior and partitions of which are lined with 

 a smooth surface of white silk, which admits the occasional 

 movements of the insect, without injury to its delicate (?) 

 texture. In performing these operations, the insect might 

 be expected to meet with opposition from the bees, and to 

 be gradually rendered more assailable as it advanced in age. 

 It never, however, exposes any part but its head and neck, 

 both of which are covered with stout helmets or scales im- 

 penetrable to the Sling of a bee, as is the composition of 

 the galleries that surround it." As soon as it has reached its 

 full growth, it seeks in the manner previously described, a 

 secure place for undergoing its changes into a winged in- 

 sect. 



, Before describing the way in which 1 protect my hives 

 from this deadly pest, I shall first show why the bee-moth 

 has so. wonderfully increased in numbers in this country, and 

 how the use of patent hives has so powerfully contributed 

 to encourage its ravages. It ought to be borne in mind that 

 our climate is altogether more propitious to its rapid increase, 

 than that of Great Britain. Our intensely hot summers 

 develop most rapidly and powerfully, insect life, and those 

 parts of our country where the heat is most protracted and 

 intense, have, as a general thing, suffered most from the 

 devastations of the bee-moth. 



The bee is not a native of the American continent ; it 

 was first brought here by colonists from Great Britain, and 

 was called by the Indians, the" white man's fly. With the 



