ENEMIES OF BEES. 
247 
The bee-moth is the only insect known to feed on wax. 
It has, for 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 queenlcss 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 the 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 with those who have seen them on the wing, 
in dull 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 beeu employed for dispensing 
* In the times of Aristotlo and Columella, the ravages of tho moth were kept 
under by a judicious system of management. It may bo seriously questioned 
whether its extermination in any Apiary would bo desirable, unless it could bo 
destroyed everywhere else. Tho bees would soon forget all about it, aud if again 
exposed to its attacks, similar results might follow to those described on p. 210 ; 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 
slothfulness, neglect their combs , which then perish." Ills bad bees wore doubtless 
those which had no fertile queen. 
