<L 



UNITED STATES 



DEPARTMENT op AGRICULTURE 



DEPARTMENT CIRCULAR 284 



Washington, D. C. Issued March. 1926 



THE STERILIZATION OF AMERICAN 

 FOULBROOD COMBS 



A. P. STURTEVANT 



Anodate ApioultoriBt, Bee Culture Laboratory, Bureau of Entomology 



Page 



XzvLixitltictioii. __. _ 1 



Ifetbadsi ' 5 



Diseased material for tests 5 



Cnltnres 6 



Solutions tested 7 



ObseDratlonsi 8 



f. Soap solutloiis . ,8 



Ugiiids of low surface tension 



■;■ otber than eOijl alcohol 10 



MisceUaneons solutions 11 



Solntlons with diluted alcohol 12 



CONTENTS 



Pset 



ObservatloiiB — Continued. 



Commercial alcohol-formalin solu- 



tion , ^_ j^jj 



Permeability of cappings " 



Vacuum, treatment . 



Perforation of cappings _!, 



Cappings removed with fcnlfe-^. 



Washing combs 



Discussion ^ . ~ 



Conclusions II_IIZr 



Literature cited '. 



INTRODUCTION 



A new era in the treatment and conlirol of American foulbrood 

 has been opened by the use of disinfectants such as an alcohol- 

 formalin solution for the sterilization oi combs infected with this 

 disease of the brood of bees. Widespread interest has been aroused 

 throughout the beekeeping industry by the apparent success of this 

 method of treatment, which eliminates to a great extent the large 

 losses previously caused by the necessary destruction of all coiSs 

 infected with Ainerican foulbrood. 



Numerous attempts have in the past been made to use formalde- 

 hyde gas as a disinfectant, but it failed to sterilize infected combs 

 completely except in a few carefully poB-trolled cases, so that even- 

 tually the use of this material for disinfecting combs was entirely 

 abandoned. White (85, 26Y found that the gas penetrated the 

 combs slowly, even when used in a tightly sealed jar, and that as 

 usually applied in the apiary it was insufficient to disinfect the combs 

 completely. More recently Maassen and Borchert {18) and Bor^ 

 chert (i), experimenting with formaldehyde gas generated from 



1 Beference is made by number (italics) to " Literature dted," p. 27. 



21137°— 26 1 



