280 
DISEASES OF BEES 
ties above mentioned have not found any 
Tarsonemus woodi in any of the bees from 
Italy or any other foreign country, includ¬ 
ing North America. So far, however, only 
a few specimens have been inspected from 
these other countries. Provisionally in 
America at least, it may be hoped that 
there is no disease of the kind here. The 
nearest to it that is found here is what is 
known as the disappearing disease. But 
this has one marked characteristic or symp¬ 
tom that is decidedly different from any 
found, in the Isle of Wight disease. Colo¬ 
nies infected with the latter seldom recover 
without treatment, and the disease con¬ 
tinues on unabated unless there is an extra 
good queen, in which case she may supply 
new bees faster than the old bees die off. 
In the case of the disappearing disease of 
this country, so far as known, the malady 
or disease or whatever it is, never lasts 
more than 10 days, at the end of which 
time the trouble disappears—hence the 
name, disappearing disease. 
It appears that the parasite, Tarsonemus 
woodi, may be found in apparently per¬ 
fectly normal or healthy bees. Bees car¬ 
rying the mites will go to the fields and 
apparently function as well as bees that 
are healthy or without the mite; but, as 
the parasite begins to develop, the first 
symptom of their host or victim will be 
its inability to fly, altho it may appear to 
be perfectly normal in all other respects. 
After a time it joins other affected bees 
out in front of the entrance of the hive, 
there to die. The disease, therefore, is in¬ 
sidious in that a beekeeper may have it and 
not know it until in the later stages he 
finds evidence showing disjointed wings 
and many bees crawling around in front 
of the entrance. It is rather remarkable, 
even where only one or two of the first 
pair of spiracles may be affected, that 
paralysis of one or both of the wing mus¬ 
cles takes place. Apparently the perfect 
functioning of the first pair of tracheae is 
necessary in order to insure a normal flight 
on the part of the bees. 
That the closing of the spiracles from 
any cause has a direct influence on the 
wings is proved by the fact that the same 
effect is produced by using any other 
means of closing these openings, such as 
warm paraffin. Experiments by Rennie 
have shown that, when these orifices are 
closed with paraffin, flight is made impos¬ 
sible almost immediately, altho the bee 
seems to be perfectly normal in all other 
respects, and may continue so for several 
weeks at a time. The fact that it can not 
fly, however, soon results in the clogging 
of the intestinal passage. This was what 
gave rise to the belief that the disease or 
malady was due to a protozoan or bac¬ 
terium in the intestines. Bees normally will 
not discharge their feces except in flight. 
In this country beekeepers will often find 
in the apiary crawling bees unable to fly. 
Such bees are not infrequently found at 
the beginning of a honey flow or during a 
temporary attack of disappearing disease. 
While it is possible that the parasite may 
be in this country, the presumption is 
rather in favor of the supposition that 
some foreign substances—possibly some 
dirt or pollen grains—have closed the first 
pair of spiracles, thus bringing on paraly¬ 
sis of the wings. Until more definite proof 
is furnished, this can be only a surmise or 
a guess. Until then the beekeepers of the 
United States should send all cases of bee 
paralysis, disappearing disease, and all bees 
around the entrance that are unable to fly, 
to the Bureau of Entomology, Washington, 
D. C. 
In the mean time the hope has been en- 
tei'tained in this country that the Isle of 
Wight disease can not thrive here. The cli¬ 
matic conditions in this country are so dif¬ 
ferent from those in Great Britain that a 
disease that might thrive in a damp or 
humid amosphere might find it difficult to 
get a foothold here. The papers given 
above would seem to indicate that the hope 
is not well founded, because the authori¬ 
ties state that other races of bees can be 
readily infected with the parasite, 
SUGGESTED CURE FOR ISLE OF WIGHT DISEASE. 
It lias been found that Tarsonemus 
woodi affects mainly the old or field bees. 
Whether the mite or parasite lodges in the 
blossoms that have been infested by other 
bees is not yet shown; but, in the absence 
of any evidence to the contrary, it may be 
inferred that flying bees going to a neigh¬ 
boring hive by mistake might carry the 
parasite from colony to colony. One 
would naturally expect, as in the case of 
