ENEMIES OF BEES. 299 



rough lodgment. "When the stock is weak, and ap- 

 pearances indicate the presence of many, it is gene- 

 rally the safest, and will be the least trouble in the 

 end, to drive out the bees at once and secure the honey 

 and wax. The bees when put into a new hive may 

 do a little, but if they should do nothing, it would be 

 no worse. It cannot be as bad any way as to have 

 left them in the old hive till the worms had destroyed 

 all and matured a thousand or two moths in addition 

 to those otherwise produced, thereby multiplying the 

 chances of damage to other stocks a thousand-fold. It 

 is probably remembered that I said when bees are 

 removed from a hive in Avarm weather, if it was not 

 infested with worms at the time, it soon, would be, 

 unless smoked with sulphur. 



WHEN THEY GROW LARGER THAN USHAi. 



In a hive thus left without bees to interfere, the 

 worms will increase to one-half or two-thirds larger 

 than where their right to the combs is disputed. In 

 one case they often have their growth, and actually 

 wind up in their cocoon when less than an inch in 

 length : in the other they will quietly fatten till they 

 are an inch and a half long and as large as a pipe-stem. 



TIME OF GROWTH. 



When first hatched from the egg, it requires very 

 close inspection to see them with the naked eye. The 

 rapidity of growth depends on the temperature in 

 which they are, as much or more than their good 

 living. A few days in hot weather might develop the 



