312 Enemies of Bees — Ifoths. 



all honey in their stomachs. They are then given founda- 

 tion and food, and the combs, honey, and hive treated as de- 

 scribed above. It would seem that the spores are in the honey, 

 and by taking that the contagion is administered to the young 

 bees. The honey may be purified from these noxious germs 

 by subjecting it to the boiling tem j)erature, "which is generally, 

 if not always, fatal to the spores of fungoid life. By immers- 

 ing the combs in a salicylic acid solution, or sprinkling them 

 with the same, they would be rendered sterile, and could be 

 used without much fear of spreading contagion. It is better 

 however, to melt them at once. The disease is probably spread 

 by robber bees visiting affected hives, and carrying with them 

 in the honey the fatal germs. 



(I have found that a paste made of gum tragacanth and 

 water is very superior, and I much prefer it for either general 

 or special use to gum Arabic. Yet it soon sours — which means 

 that it is nourishing these fungoid plants — and thus becomes 

 disagreeable. I have found that a very little salicylic acid 

 will render it sterile, and tlius preserve it indefinitely.) 



ENEMIE.S OF BEES. 



Swift was no mean entomologist, as is shown in the following 

 stanza : 



"The little fleas that do us te.ase, 



Have lesser fleas to bite them, 

 And these again have lesser fleas, 



And so ad in/inituni,^' 



Bees are no exception to this law, as they have to brave the 

 attacks of reptiles, birds, and othei insects. In fact they are 

 l)eset with perils at homo and perils abroad, perils by night 

 and perils by day. 



THE BEE MOTH — Gdurla cereaua, Fabr. 



This insect belongs to the family of snout motlis, Pyralid£e. 

 Tliis snout is not the tongue, l)ut the palpi, which fact was 

 not known l.)y Mr. Langstroth, who is usually so accurate, as 

 he essayed to correct Dr. Harris, wlio .stated correctly that 

 the tongue, the ligula, was "very short and hardly visible." 

 This fomily includes the destructive hop moth, and the nox- 

 iot.s meal and clover motlis, and its members arc very readily 

 recognized by their usually long palpi, the so-called snouts. 



