BEE DISEASES 121 



always shows ignorance on the part of the 

 beekeeper because the work of the wax 

 moth is almost invariably of a secondary 

 nature. In a strong colony a wax moth 

 would have a hard time doing much dam- 

 age because the watchful inhabitants 

 would hustle it out at the front door al- 

 most before it emerged from the egg. 



If the colony is weakened from disease 

 or neglect the wax moth soon ruins the 

 combs and puts an end to the colony. The 

 eggs are laid in the cracks and in the en- 

 trance to the hive. As the young hatch, 

 they crawl to the combs where they feed 

 and spin their webs. In the end the 

 combs are reduced to a tangled mass of 

 debris consisting of the hard portions of 

 the comb combined with the almost spider- 

 like webs which the feeding ''worms" 

 produce. They work with almost unbe- 

 lievable rapidity when they once get a 

 start. I recently saw a hive containing 

 empty combs which had been left in the 

 apiary for about two months and all but 



