296 
ENEMIES OF BEES 
is finished. Young skunks that leave their 
nests and start foraging for themselves 
during midsummer and autumn seem to do 
the greater part of the damage, causing 
the colonies to dwindle rapidly at a time 
when they should be building up for winter. 
Skunks may be poisoned by putting 
strychnine or Rough on Rats inside of 
small chunks of beef, leaving the beef at 
night on the entrance of the hive at which 
the skunks are working, remembering to 
remove it early the next morning. This 
could not be done safely where valuable 
cats or dogs would be likely to get it. 
Some beekeepers have reported good re¬ 
sults by stirring the poison into eggs. 
Others are protecting their yards by fenc¬ 
ing them in with four-foot poultry-netting, 
one foot of which is folded at a right angle 
so as to be flat on the ground on the out¬ 
side of the fence, the outer edge being held 
close to the ground by being weighted or 
staked down. The skunks apparently do 
not know enough to start digging back of 
that part of the netting lying on the 
ground. 
ANTS. 
Certain ants in the more southern States, 
particularly in Florida and Texas, will at¬ 
tack a colony of bees and utterly ruin it. 
For further particulars see Ants, subhead 
“Ants in the South.” 
SPIDERS. 
Spiders as well as toads seem to have 
a rare appreciation of a heavily laden bee 
as it returns to the hive; one should there¬ 
fore be careful that all spider webs be 
faithfully kept brushed away from the 
hives, and that they have no corners or 
crevices about them to harbor such insects. 
Be sure there is no place which the broom 
will not clear out at one sweep; for where 
one has a hundred hives he cannot well 
spend a great amount of time on each one. 
Many of these so-called enemies probably 
