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 

 Jlies, in a room, 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 ilat 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. 



813. Itahan bees , unless exceedingly weak and queenless , 

 (182), 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 



