114 MANUAL OF APICULTURE. 



lected colonies. The i)oi)ulav luime, wax moth, was doubtless given on 

 the supposition that the food of the larva was chiefly wax; but when an 

 attempt to rear them on this substance in its usual commercial purity 

 is Hiade slight development only results. Probably chemically pure wax 

 would not be touched by the larva; but in combs containing the larval 

 skins left by developing bees, or containing brood or pollen, they reach 

 their highest development if left undisturbed during warm weather, 

 finding ample nourishment in the nitrogen containing i)ollen and animal 

 tissues left by the molting larva^. To protect themselves from the bees 

 they line their galleries through the combs with a strong web of silk 

 and are able to retreat or advance rapidly through them when attacked. 

 The observing bee keeper will occasionally notice the moths resting 

 during the daytime on the corners of the hives or under the roof pro- 

 jections or edges of the bottom boards. Its color is dull or ashy gray, 

 with light and dark streaks, making it so nearly like a protruding sliver 

 of a weather-beaten board as to protect it materially from its enemies 

 when resting on any unpainted surface that has been long exposed. At 

 nightfall the moths may be seen flitting about the hive entrances, seek- 

 ing an opportunity to enter and deposit their eggs. If prevented by 

 the bees, which are then instinctively on the alert, they deposit in the 

 crevices between the hive and stand or between the hive and cap. The 

 minute larv;e as they emerge soon make their waj^ into the interior of 

 the hive. It is i)ossible also that some of the eggs of the moth may be 

 left where the bees crawling over them carry them into the hive by 

 accident, the freshly laid egg adhering readily to any substance it 

 touches. In the northern and middle sections of the United States 

 two broods are reared, the first appearing in May, the second and larger 

 brood in midsummer or even August. The eggs deposited by the last 

 brood develop slowly in the cooler autumn weather, but usually reach 

 the pupal stage, in which they normally pass the winter. Individual 

 moths ma}', liowever, be seen about tlie apiary during June and July, 

 and even into the autumn, so that egg deposition is constantly going 

 on, and any combs removed from the hive and left unprotected by bees, 

 especially if in a warm apartment or a closed box, will soon be in com- 

 plete possession of the destructive larvae, which wax fat and soon reduce 

 them to a mass of webs. The only remedies are to keep the combs 

 under tbe constant protection of the bees, or, if the colonies are not 

 populous enough to cover them fairly, the combs should be hung so as 

 to leave a space between them in a cupboard or large box which can 

 be closed tightly, so as to subject them for some time to the fumes gen- 

 erated by throwing a handful or two of sulphur on live coals, or to the 

 odors of bisulphide of carbon in an open vial. Caution is needed in the 

 use of the latter, since it is highly inflammable. 



Oriental races of bees are more energetic than others in clearing 

 out wax-moth larvae, and Carniolans and Italians more so than the 

 common bees. But in colonies always supplied with good queens 



