FOUL BROOD—THE WAX MOTH. 113 
however, be present when no foul brood exists; but if, upon opening 
' some of the cells whose caps are sunken or slightly punctured, a brown, 
ropy, putrid mass is found, which, when lifted on the end of a sliver of 
wood, glides back into the cell or strings down from the mass like thick 
sirup, it is pretty certain that foul brood is present. Caution is neces- 
sary or it may be spread all through the apiary. The hands, as well as 
all tools used about the infected colony, should be cleansed by washing 
in a solution of corrosive sublimate (one-eighth ounce dissolved in 1 
gallon water) before going to another hive. If but few are found dis- 
eased they should be burned at once—at night, when all the bees are at 
home. [If all or nearly all are affected, or if the disease does not seem 
virulent and other apiaries in the neighborhood are not endangered 
thereby, a cure may be attempted. Removal of all of the combs and 
confinement of the bees in an empty box, obliging them to fast until 
some drop from hunger, followed after releasing them by liberal feed- 
ing, will frequently effect a cure, as indicated many years since by 
Mr. M. Quinby. The hives may be disinfected by washing in carbolic- 
acid water and used again. A second removal of the bees and fasting 
may be necessary in some cases. It will also be well to feed medicated 
sirup—1l part of carbolic acid, or phenol, to 600 or 700 parts of sirup. 
Many omit the fasting, but destroy all combs and frames and supply 
comb-foundation starters, removing four days later all combs built and 
giving a second lot of starters. It is well to supplement this treat- 
ment with feeding of medicated sirup. Phenol having been suggested 
to Professor Cheshire as a remedy, he experimented until he found 
that if a sirup containing 1 part of phenol to 400 or 500 parts of the 
food be poured in the cells adjacent to the brood, and the diseased 
brood, after brushing off the bees, sprayed with a solution of 1 phenol 
to 50 water, a cure was speedily effected. The great risk of spreading 
the disease, as well as the time and expense which a cure by drugs or 
by the fasting process involves, will cause immediate destruction to be 
resorted to as the cheapest in the end if taken in time. 
Bacillus gaytoni, also described by Professor Cheshire, is character- 
ized by loss of hairy covering on the part of the workers and their 
crawling out of the hives over the ground, constantly wriggling their 
bodies until death occurs. It yields, according to Professor Cheshire, 
to the same remedies as Bacillus alvei, but having been less destructive 
and being far more likely to disappear without effort to cure it, less 
attention has been given toit. Lately, however, it has been alarmingly 
destructive in some of the extensive apiaries of California, Colorado, 
and Texas, so that some simple remedy would be very welcome. 
THE WAX OR BEE MOTH. 
The larva of a moth known to entomologists as Galleria mellonella 
Linn. gnaws passages through the combs of the bees, especially those in 
or near the brood nest, often proving very destructive in weak or neg- 
4526—No. 1——8 
