430 The Bee Mite. 



abdomen imperfectly ringed with yellow. The wasps ai e 

 very predaceous,and do immense benefit by capturing and 

 eating our insect pests. I have seen wasps carry off "cur- 

 rant worms" with a celerity that was most refreshing. 



As the solitary wasps are too few in numbers to do much 

 damage — even if they ever do any — any great damage 

 which may occur would doubtless come from the social 

 paper-makers. In this case, we have only to find the nests 

 and apply the torch, or hold the muzzle of a shot-gun to 

 the nest and shoot. This should be done at nightfall ^hen 

 the wasps have all gathered home. Let us not forget that 

 the wasps do much good, and so not practice wholesale 

 slaughter unless we have strong evidence against them. 



A BEE MITE. 



It has long been known to chicken fanciers that our poul- 

 try often suffer serious injury from a small mite. Other 

 mites attacked the cow, the horse, the sheep, etc. 



During the past Sprinsj a l;uly bee-keeper of Connecti- 



FiG. 220. 



cut discovered these mites in her hives while investigating 

 to learn the cause of their rapid depletion. She had noticed 

 that the colonies were greatly reduced in number of bees, 

 and upon close observation she found that the diseased or 

 failing colonies were covered with these mites. A cele- 



