426 Enemies of the Bee. 



temporary relief. About ten is the greatest number that I 

 have seen on one queen. I have only thought it necessary 

 to remove them in case there were three or more on a 

 queen. The only way to remove them is to pick them off 

 with a knife, scissors, forceps or similar instrument. They 

 are quick footed and glide from one place to another like 

 the wax-moth. I hold the queen between the thumb and 

 first finger of the left hand, and with pocket-knife or clip- 

 ping scissors shave off the parasite. It is no easy matter to 

 get them the first time, as when you attempt their removal 

 they glide around to the other side of the queen so adroitly 

 that you have to turn the queen over to try again." Mr. 

 Benton says that it is not practicable to remove these lice 

 by lessening the size of the entrance to the hive. He 

 thinks that, with the attention given to bees in America, 

 the Braula will never become a serious pest, if introduced 

 here. While these lice have been imported to America 

 several times, they seem to disappear almost at once, which 

 verifies Mr. Benton's prophecy. 



ANTS. 



These cluster about the hives in spring for warmth, and 

 seldom, if ever, I think, do any harm in our cold climates, 

 though in California and the South they do much harm. 

 Should the apiarist feel nervous, he can very readily brush 

 them away, or destroy them by use of any of the fly poisons 

 which are kept in the markets. As these poisons are made 

 attractive by adding sweets, we must be careful to preclude 

 the bees from gaining access to them. As we should use 

 them in spring, and as we then need to keep the quilt or 

 honey board close above the bees, and as the ants cluster 

 above the brood chamber, it is not difficult to practice poi- 

 soning. One year I tried Paris green with success. There 

 are several reports of ants entering the hives and killing 

 the bees; even the queen is said to have been thus destroyed. 

 In such cases, if they occur, it is best to put a sweet poison- 

 ous mixture in a box and permit the ants to enter through 

 an opening too small to admit bees, and thus poisorf the 

 ants. Or we mav find the ant's nest, and with a crowbar, 

 make a hole in it, turn in this an ounce of bisulphide of 



