ENEMIES OF BEES. 247 



T^fcee-moth is the only insect known to feed on wax. 

 It has, ibr thousands of years, supported itself on the 

 labors of the bee, and there is no reason to suppose that 

 it will ever become exterminated. In a state of nature, 

 a queenless hive, or one whose inmates have died, being 

 of no further account, the mission of the moth is to 

 gather up its fragments that nothing may be lost.* 



From these remarks, the bee-keeper will see tl^ means 

 on which he must rely, to protect his colonies from the 

 moth. Knowing that strong stocks which have a fertile 

 queen, can take care of themselves in almost any kind 

 of hive, he should do all that he can to keep them in this 

 condition. They will thus do more to defend themselves 

 than if he devoted the whole of his time to fighting the 

 moth. 



It is hardly necessary, after the preceding remarks, to 

 say much upon the various contrivances to which so 

 many resort, as a safeguard against the bee-moth. The 

 idea that gauze-wire doors, to be shut at dusk and 

 opened again at morning, can exclude the moth, will not 

 weigh much v^th those who have seen them on the wing, 

 in duU weather, long before the bees have ceased their 

 work. Even if they could be excluded by such a con- 

 trivance, it would require, on the part of those using it, a 

 regularity almost akin to that of the heavenly bodies. 



An ingenious device has been employed for dispensing 



* In the times of Aristotle and Columella, the ravages of the moth were kept 

 under by a judicious system of management. It may be seriously questioned 

 whether its extermination in any Apiary would be desirable, unless it could be 

 destroyed everywhere else. The bees would soon forget all about it, and if again 

 exposed to its attacks, similar results might follow to those described on p. 240 ; for 

 unless the bees know how to protect themselves, no art of man can save them, as 

 is clearly seen in queenless hives, where they will not attend to their combs. 

 Aristotle says, " that good bees expel the moths and worms, but others, from 

 filothfalness, neglect their comba, which then perish." His had bees were doubtless 

 those which had no fertile queen. 



