BEES AND THEIR RELATION TO ARSENICAL 

 SPRAYS AT BLOSSOMING TIME 



W. Ay Price 



INTRODUCTION 



Fruit-growers who apply lead arsenate or other arsenical sprays to 

 trees in full bloom have long been accused by beekeepers of causing a tre- 

 mendous death rate of bees from poisoning. Beekeepers and entomolo- 

 gists have noticed the large number of dead bees around sprayed trees and 

 about the hive. Even when they made allowance for death from old age, 

 disease, and other causes, the mortality was abnormally high. Fruit- 

 growers have not been willing to assume responsibility for this excessive 

 death rate, and up to the present time very little in the way of exact data^ 

 has been submitted to support either side of the question. The experi- 

 ments recorded here are an attempt to contribute definite evidence on the 

 subject. 



The foregoing discussion may bring at least two questions to the mind 

 of the reader. Why is a spray applied when apple trees are in full bloom ? 

 Could it not be applied later with just as good results? Pathologists tell 

 us that spraying is necessary to control scab just before the blossoms open 

 and again after the petals fall. The effective period for applying the first 

 spray is only -three days in extent, and for tlje second spray about five days. 



An arsenical is also applied in the first spray to control curculio, and 

 in the second spray for codling moth. The spray for codling moth must 

 be applied before the calyx lobes close, which is from a week to ten days 

 after the blossoms fall. If growers could only adhere strictly to the well- 

 defined time limits mentioned for each of these sprays, the- discussion re- 

 garding bee-poisoning would have to end, for it is a well known fact that 

 bees do not visit trees to any large extent before the blossoms open, or 

 after the petals have fallen. But fruit-growers have a practical difficulty 

 to meet in this connection. They must buy enough high-priced spraying 

 equipment to spray large acreages within the short spaces of time pre- 

 viously mentioned. None of the other sprays during the season is so 

 limited in the effective time ior application. 



When rainy weather or lack of capital for equipment forces the or- 

 chardist to begin spraying while trees are in bloom, the beekeeper naturally 

 becomes concerned about having his bees feed upon poisoned blossoms. 

 And if we assume that such feeding causes the wholesale poisoning of bees, 

 the orchard owner not only causes serious loss to a neighboring beekeeper 

 but he kills the only agent which is effective in fertilizing his fruit blos- 

 soms and thus increasing the set and yield of fruit. 



During the course of a clear, warm day in blossoming season a bee 

 usually makes several trips to the blossoms to gather nectar. If spray 

 material has previously been applied to the blossoms, the assumption is that 

 because of the feeding habit of the bee, it can scarcely avoid gathering 

 poison with the nectar. 



1 Detection of Arsenic in Bees, by B. B. Holland, Journal of Economic Entomology, 

 Vo-l. 9, No. 3. ' 



Spraying with Arsenites vs. Bees, by F. M. Webster, Bui. No. 68, Ohio Agricultural 

 Experiment Station. 



