THE BEE-MOTH. 467 
In smoking comb-honey in a room, the sulphur may be 
placed on hot coals in a dish, and care should be taken 
not to use too much of it, as the gas has the effect of turn- 
ing the propolis to a greenish color, quite damaging to the 
looks of the beautiful sections. Enough smoke to kill the 
flies, in aroom, will be found sufficient. Dry combs kept 
over Winter in a well closed room without a fire, are not in 
danger of the moth the following Summer, unless they are 
in some manner exposed. Combs, in which there have been 
moths, should be examined occasionally, to be smoked again 
if any worms are found. 
A bee-keeper of Switzerland, Mr. Castellaz, keeps his 
combs in a closed box, in which he places some lumps of 
camphor. He says that bees accept these combs, even when 
impregnated with the odor of camphor. 
In Italy where the moths are very troublesome, on account 
of the mildness of the Winters, some bee-keepers pile 
their combs flat in a box in which they have put about one 
inch of fine dry sand; all the cells of every layer of comb 
are filled with sand, and the last one is entirely covered with 
it. The sand is shaken out, before the combs are melted 
or returned to the bees. 
818. Italian bees, unless exceedingly weak and queenless, 
(5652), will defend a large number of combs against moths. 
One of our neighbors, who had, occasionally, helped us in 
the Apiary, after witnessing our success in bee culture, 
bought a colony of Italian bees and divided (470) it into 
three swarms, without regard to the scantiness of the crop. 
His swarms having dwindled to naught, he returned their 
combs to the impoverished colony, whose population was 
unable to ‘cover more than two or three combs. But the 
returned combs had not been protected against moths, 
which hatched so numerous that our neighbor, surprised to 
see about as many moths as bees going out of the hive, 
came to us for advice. On opening the hive, we found 
