CHAPTER XIX.EVILS THAT CONFRONT THE APIARIST.

There are various dangers that are likely to vex the apiarist, and even to stand in the way of successful apiculture.—Yet, with knowledge, most, if not all of these evils may be wholly vanquished. Among these are: Robbing among the bees, disease, and depredations from other animals.

This is a trouble that often very greatly annoys the inexperienced. Bees only rob at such times as the general scarcity of nectar forbids honest gains. When the question comes: Famine or theft, like many another, they are not slow to choose the latter. It is often induced by working with the bees at such times, especially if honey is scattered about or left lying around the apiary. It is especially to be feared in spring, when colonies are apt to be weak in both honey and bees, and thus are unable to protect their own meager stores. The remedies for this evil are not far to seek:

First. Strong colonies arevery rarelymolested, and are almost sure to defend themselves against marauders; hence, it is only the weaklings of the apiarist's flock that are in danger. Therefore, regard for our motto, "Keep all colonies strong," will secure against harm from this cause.

Second. Italians, as before stated, are fully able, and quite as ready, to protect their rights against neighboring tramps. Woe be to the thieving bee that dares to violate the sacred rights of the home of our beautiful Italians. For such temerity is almost sure to cost the intruder its life.

But weak colonies, like our nuclei, and those too of black bees, are still easily kept from harm. Usually, the closing of the entrance so that but a single bee can pass through, isall sufficient. With the hive we have recommended, this is easily accomplished by simply moving the hive back.

Another way to secure such colonies against robbing is to move them into the cellar for a few days. This is a further advantage, as less food is eaten, and the strength of the individual bees is conserved by the quiet, and as there is no nectar in the fields no loss is suffered.

In all the work of the apiary at times of no honey gathering, we cannot be too careful to keep all honey from the bees unless placed in the hives. The hives, too, should not be kept open long at a time. Neat, quick work should be the watch-word. During times when robbers are essaying to practice their nefarious designs, the bees are likely to be more than usually irritable, and likely to resent intrusion; hence the importance of more than usual caution, if it is desired to introduce a queen.

The common dysentery—indicated by the bees soiling their hives, as they void their feces within instead of without—which has been so free, of late, to work havoc in our apiaries, is, without doubt, I think, consequent upon wrong management on the part of the apiarist, as already suggested inChapter XVII. As the methods to prevent this have already been sufficiently considered, we pass to the terrible

This disease, said to have been known to Aristotle—though this is doubtful, as a stench attends common dysentery—though it has occurred in our State as well as in States about us, is not familiar to me, I having never seen but one case, and that on Kelly's Island, in the summer of 1875, where I found it had reduced the colonies on that Island to two. No bee malady can compare with this in malignancy. By it Dzierzon once lost his whole apiary of 500 colonies.—Mr. E. Rood, first President of the Michigan Association, has lost his bees two or three times by this same terrible plague.

The symptoms are as follows: Decline in the prosperity of the colony, because of failure to rear brood. The brood seems to putrefy, becomes "brown and salvy," and gives off astench, which is by no means agreeable, while later, the caps are concave instead of convex, and have a little hole through them.

There is no longer any doubt as to the cause of this fearful plague. Like the fell "Pebrine," which came so near exterminating the "silk worm," and a most lucrative and extensive industry in Europe, it, as conclusively shown by Drs. Preusz and Shönfeld, of Germany, is the result of fungous or vegetable growth. Shönfeld not only infected healthy bee larvæ, but those of other insects, both by means of the putrescent foul brood, and by taking the spores.

Fungoid growths are very minute, and the spores are so infinitesimally small as often to elude the sharp detection of the expert microscopist. Most of the terrible, contagious diseases that human flesh is heir to, like typhus, diphtheria, cholera, small pox, &c., &c., are now thought to be due to microscopic germs, and hence to be spread from home to home, and from hamlet to hamlet, it is only necessary that the spores, the minute seeds, either by contact or by some sustaining air current, be brought to new soil of flesh blood or other tissue—their garden spot—when they at once spring into growth, and thus lick up the very vitality of their victims. The huge mushroom will grow in a night. So too, these other plants—the disease germs—will develop with marvelous rapidity; and hence the horrors of yellow fever, scarlatina, and cholera.

To cure such diseases, the fungi must be killed. To prevent their spread, the spores must be destroyed, or else confined. But as these are so small, so light, and so invisible—easily borne and wafted by the slightest zephyr of summer, this is often a matter of the utmost difficulty.

In "Foul Brood" these germs feed on the larvæ of the bees, and thus convert life and vigor into death and decay. If we can kill this miniature forest of the hive, and destroy the spores, we shall extirpate the terrible plague.

If we can find a substance that will prove fatal to the fungi, and yet not injure the bees, the problem is solved. Our German scientists—those masters in scientific researchand discovery, have found this valuable fungicide in salicylic acid, an extract from the same willows that give us pollen and nectar. This cheap white powder is easily soluble in alcohol, and when mixed with borax in water.

Mr. Hilbert, one of the most thoughtful of German bee-keepers, was the first to effect a radical cure of foul brood in his apiary by the use of this substance. He dissolved fifty grains of the acid in five hundred grains of pure spirits. One drop of this in a grain of distilled water is the mixture he applied. Mr. C. F. Muth, from whom the above facts as to Herr Hilbert are gathered, suggests a variation in the mixture.

Mr. Muth suggests an improvement, which takes advantage of the fact that the acid, which alone is very insoluble in water, is, when mixed with borax, soluble. His recipe is as follows: One hundred and twenty-eight grains of salicylic acid, one hundred and twenty-eight grains of soda borax, and sixteen ounces distilled water. There is no reason why water without distillation should not do as well.

This remedy is applied as follows: First uncap all the brood, then throw the fluid over the comb in a fine spray. This will not injure the bees, but will prove fatal to the fungi.

If the bees are removed to an empty hive, and given no comb for three or four days, till they have digested all the honey in their stomachs, and then prevented visiting the affected hive, they are said to be out of danger. It would seem that the spores are in the honey, and by taking that, the contagion is administered to the young bees. The honey may be purified from these noxious germs, by subjecting it to the boiling temperature, which is generally, if not always, fatal to the spores of fungoid life. By immersing the combs in a salicylic acid solution, or sprinkling them with the same, they would be rendered sterile, and could be used without much fear of spreading contagion. The disease is probably spread by robber bees visiting affected hives, and carrying with them in the honey the fatal germs.

I have found that a paste made of gum tragacanth and water is very superior, and I much prefer it for either general or special use to gum Arabic. Yet it soon sours—which means that it is nourishing these fungoid plants—andthus becomes disagreeable. I have found that a very little salicylic acid will render it sterile, and thus preserve it indefinitely.

Swift was no mean entomologist, as shown in the following stanza:

"The little fleas that do us tease,Have lesser fleas to bite them,And these again have lesser fleas,And so ad infinitum."

"The little fleas that do us tease,

Have lesser fleas to bite them,

And these again have lesser fleas,

And so ad infinitum."

Bees are no exception to this law, as they have to brave the attacks of reptiles, birds, and other insects. In fact, they are beset with perils at home, and perils abroad, perils by night and perils by day.

This insect belongs to the family of snout moths, Pyralidæ. This snout is not the tongue, but the palpi, which fact was not known by Mr. Langstroth, who is usually so accurate, as he essayed to correct Dr. Harris, who stated correctly, that the tongue, the ligula, was "very short and hardly visible." This family includes the destructive hopmoth, and the noxious meal and clover moths, and its members are very readily recognized by their unusually long palpi, the so-called snouts.

Fig. 102.

Fig, 103.

The eggs of the bee moth are white, globular and very small. These are usually pushed into crevices by the female moth as she extrudes them, which she can easily do by aid of her spy-glass-like ovipositor. They may be laid in the hive, in the crevice underneath it or about the entrance.—Soon these eggs hatch, when the gray, dirty looking caterpillars, with brown heads, seek the comb on which they feed. To better protect themselves from the bees, they wrap themselves in a silken tube (Fig, 102) which they have power to spin. They remain in this tunnel of silk during all their growth, enlarging it as they eat. By looking closely, the presence of these larvæ may be known by this robe of glistening silk, as it extends in branching outlines (Fig, 103) along the surface of the comb. A more speedy detection, even, than the defaced comb, comes from the particles of comb, intermingled with the powder-like droppings of the caterpillars, which will always be seen on the bottom-board in case the moth-larvæ are at work. Soon, in three or four weeks, the larvæ are full grown (Fig, 104). Now the sixjointed, and the ten prop-legs—making sixteen in all, the usual number of caterpillars—are plainly visible.

Fig. 104.

Fig. 105.

Fig. 106.

These larvæ are about an inch long, and show, by their plump appearance, that they at least, can digest comb. They now spin their cocoons, either in some crevice about the hive, or, if very numerous, singly (Fig, 105,a) or in clusters (Fig, 105,b) on the comb, or even in the drone-cells (Fig, 105,c) in which they become pupæ, and in two weeks, even less, sometimes, during the extreme heat of summer, the moths again appear. In winter, they may remain as pupæ for months. The moths or millers—sometimes incorrectly called moth-millers—are of an obscure gray color, and thus so mimic old boards, that theyare very readily passed unobserved by the apiarist. They are about three-fourths of an inch long, and expand (Fig, 106) nearly one and one-fourth inches. The females (Fig, 107) are darker than the males (Fig, 107), possess a longer snout, and are usually a little larger. The wings, when the moths are quiet (Fig, 107) are flat on the back for a narrow space, then slope very abruptly. They rest by day, yet, when disturbed, will dart forth with great swiftness, so Réaumur styled them "nimble-footed." They are active by night, when they essay to enter the hive and deposit their one or two hundred eggs. If the females are held in the hand they will often extrude their eggs; in fact, they have been known to do this even after the head and thorax were severed from the abdomen, and still more strange, while the latter was being dissected.

Fig. 107.Male. Female.

Fig. 107.

It is generally stated that these are two-brooded, the first moths occurring in May, the second in August. Yet, as I have seen these moths in every month from May to September, and as I have proved by actual observation that they may pass from egg to moth in less than six weeks, I think under favorable conditions there may be even three broods a year. It is true that the varied conditions of temperature—as the moth larvæ may grow in a deserted hive, in one with few bees, or one crowded with bee life—will have much to do with the rapidity of development. Circumstances may so retard growth and development that there may not be more than two, and possibly, in extreme cases, more than one brood in a season.

It is stated by Mr Quinby that a freezing temperature will kill these insects in all stages, while Mr. Betsinger thinks that a deserted hive is safe, neither of which assertions are correct. I have seen hives, whose bees were killed by thesevere winter, crowded with moth pupæ or chrysalids the succeeding summer. I have subjected both larvæ and pupæ to the freezing temperature without injuring them. I believe, in very mild winters, the moth and the chrysalids might be so protected as to escape unharmed, even outside the hive. It is probable too, that the insects may pass the winter in any one of the various stages.

These moths were known to writers of antiquity, as even Aristotle tells of their injuries. They are wholly of oriental origin, and are often referred to by European writers as a terrible pest. Dr. Kirtland, the able scientist, the first President of our American Bee Convention, whose decease we have just had to mourn, once said in a letter to Mr. Langstroth, that the moth was first introduced into America in 1805, though bees had been introduced long before. They first seemed to be very destructive. It is quite probable, as has been suggested, that the bees had to learn to fear and repel them; for, unquestionably, bees do grow in wisdom.—In fact, may not the whole of instinct be inherited knowledge, which once had to be acquired by the animal. Surely bees and other animals learn to battle new enemies, and vary their habits with changed conditions, and they also transmit this knowledge and their acquired habits to their offspring, as illustrated by setter and pointer dogs. In time, may not this account for all those varied actions, usually ascribed to instinct? At least, I believe the bee to be a creature of no small intelligence.

In Europe, late writers give very little space to this moth. Once a serious pest, it has now ceased to alarm, or even disquiet the intelligent apiarist. In fact, we may almost call it a blessed evil, as it will destroy the bees of the heedless, and thus prevent injury to the markets by their unsalable honey, while to the attentive bee-keeper it will work no injury at all. Neglect and ignorance are the moth breeders.

As already stated, Italian bees are rarely injured by moths, and strong colonies never. As the enterprising apiarist will only possess these, it is clear that he is free fromdanger. The intelligent apiarist will also provide, not only against weak, but queenless colonies as well, which from their abject discouragement, are the surest victims to moth invasion. Knowing that destruction is sure, they seem, if not to court death, to make no effort to delay it.

In working with bees, an occasional web will be seen glistening in the comb, which should be picked out with a knife till the manufacturer—the ruthless larva—is found, when it should be crushed. Any larva seen about the bottom board, seeking a place to spin its cocoon, or any pupæ, either on comb or in crack, should also be killed. If, through carelessness, a colony has become hopelessly victimized by these filthy, stinking, wax devourers, then the bees and any combs not attacked should be transferred to another hive, after which the old hive should be sulphured by use of the smoker, as before described (page 216), then by giving one or two each of the remaining combs to strong colonies, after killing any pupæ that may be on them, they will be cleaned and used, while by giving the enfeebled colony brood, if it has any vigor remaining, and if necessary a good queen, it will soon be rejoicing in strength and prosperity.

We have already spoken of caution as to comb honey and frames of comb (page 216), and so need not speak further of them.

This is a two-winged fly, of the predacious family Asilidæ, which attacks, and takes captive the bee and then feeds upon its fluids. It is confined to the southern part of our country.

The fly (Fig, 108) has a long, pointed abdomen, strong wings, and is very powerful. I have seen an allied species attack and overcome the powerful tiger-beetle, whereupon I took them both with my net, and now have them pinned, as they were captured, in our College cabinet. These flies delight in the warm sunshine, are very quick on the wing, and are thus not easily captured. It is to be hoped that they will not become very numerous. If they should, I hardly know how they could be kept from their evil work. Frightening them, or catching with a net might be tried, yet these methods would irritate the bees, and need to be tried beforethey are recommended. I have received specimens of this fly from nearly every Southern State. There are very similar flies North, belonging to the same genus, but as yet we have no account of their attacking bees, though such a habit might easily be acquired, and attacks here would not be surprising.

Fig. 108.

Imago.

Larva.

This louse (Fig, 109) is a wingless Dipteron, and one of the uniques among insects. It is a blind, spider-like parasite, and serves as a very good connecting link between insects and spiders, or, still better, between the Diptera, where it belongs, and the Hemiptera, which contains the bugs andmost of the lice. It assumes the semi-pupa state almost as soon as hatched, and strangest of all, is, considering the size of the bee on which it lives, and from which it sucks its nourishment, enormously large. Two or three, and sometimes even more, (the new Encyclopedia Britannica says 50 or 100), are often found on a single bee. When we consider their great size we cannot wonder that they very soon devitalize the bees.

These, as yet, have done little damage, except in the south of Continental Europe. The fact that they have not become naturalized in the northern part of the Continent, England or America, would go to show that there is something inimical to their welfare in our climate, especially as they are constantly being introduced, coming as hangers-on to our imported bees. Within a year I have received them from no less than three sources—twice from New York and once from Pennsylvania—each time taken from bees just received from Italy. The only way that I could suggest to rid bees of them would be to make the entrance to the hive small, so that as the bees enter, they would be scraped off.

In view of the serious nature of this pest and the difficulty in the way of its extinction, I would urge importers, and people receiving imported queens, to be very careful to see that these lice, which, from their size, are so easily discovered, are surely removed before any queen harboring them is introduced. This advice is especially important, in view of the similarity in climate of our own beautiful South, to the sunny slopes of France and Italy. Very likely the lice could not flourish in our Southern States, but there would be great cause to fear the results of its introduction into our Eldorado, the genial States of the West. In California, they might be even worse than the drouth, as they might come as a permanent, not a temporary evil.

This large, fine lace wing is a neuropterous insect. It works in the Southern States and is called Mosquito-hawk.—Insectsof the same genus are called dragon flies, devil's, darning-needles, &c. These are exceedingly predacious. In fact, the whole sub-order is insectivorous. From its four netted, veined wings, we can tell it at once from the asilus before mentioned, which has but two wings. The Bee or Mosquito-hawk is resplendent with metallic green, while the Bee Killer is of sober gray. The Mosquito Hawk is not inaptly named, as it not only preys on other insects, swooping down upon them with the dexterity of a hawk, but its graceful gyrations, as it sports in the warm sunshine at noonday, are not unlike those of our graceful hawks and falcons. These insects are found most abundant near water, as they lay their eggs in water, where the larvæ live and feed upon other animals. The larvæ are peculiar in breathing by gills in their rectum. The same water that bathes these organs and furnishes oxygen, is sent out in a jet, and thus sends the insect darting along. The larvæ also possess enormous jaws, which formidable weapons are masked till it is desired to use them, when the dipper-shaped mask is dropped or unhinged and the terrible jaws open and close upon the unsuspecting victim, which has but a brief time to bewail its temerity.

A writer from Georgia, inGleanings, volume 6, page 35, states that these destroyers are easily scared away, or brought down by boys with whips, who soon become as expert in capturing the insects, as are the latter in seizing the bees. The insects are very wild and wary, and I should suppose this method would be very efficient.

Fig. 110.

From descriptions which I have received, I feel certain that there is a two-winged fly, probably of the genus Tachina(Fig, 110), that works on bees. I have never seen these, though I have repeatedly requested those who have, to send them to me. My friend, Mr. J. L. Davis, put some sick looking bees into a cage, and hatched the flies which he told me looked not unlike a small house fly. It is the habit of these flies, which belong to the same family as our house flies, which they much resemble, to lay their eggs on other insects. Their young, upon hatching, burrow into the insect that is being victimized, and grow by eating it. It would be difficult to cope with this evil, should it become of great magnitude. We may well hope that this habit of eating bees is an exceptional one with it.

These sometimes spread their nets so as to capture bees. If porticos—which are, I think, worse than a useless expense—are omitted, there will very seldom be any cause for complaints against the spiders, which on the whole are friends. As the bee-keeper who would permit spiders to worry his bees would not read books, I will discuss this subject no further.

These cluster about the hives in spring for warmth, and seldom, if ever, I think, do any harm. Should the apiarist feel nervous, he can very readily brush them away, or destroy them by use of any of the fly poisons which are kept in the markets. As these poisons are made attractive by adding sweets, we must be careful to preclude the bees from gaining access to them. As we should use them in spring, and as we then need to keep the quilt or honey-board close above the bees, and as the ants cluster above the brood chamber, it is not difficult to practice poisoning. One year I tried Paris green with perfect success.

I have never seen bees injured by wasps. In the South, as in Europe, we hear of such depredations. I have received wasps, sent by our southern brothers, which were caught destroying bees. The wasps are very predacious, and doimmense benefit by capturing and eating our insect pests. I have seen wasps carry off "currant-worms" with a celerity that was most refreshing.

As the solitary wasps are too few in numbers to do much damage—even if they ever do any—any great damage which may occur would doubtless come from the social paper-makers. In this case, we have only to find the nests and apply the torch, or hold the muzzle of a shot-gun to the nest and shoot. This should be done at night-fall when the wasps have all gathered home. Let us not forget that the wasps do much good, and so not practice wholesale slaughter unless we have strong evidence against them.

This bird, often called the bee-martin, is one of the fly-catchers, a very valuable family of birds, as they are wholly insectivorous, and do immense good by destroying our insect pests. The king bird is the only one of them in the United States that deserves censure. Another, the chimney swallow of Europe, has the same evil habit. Our chimney swallow has no evil ways. I am sure, from personal observation, that these birds capture and eat the workers, as well as drones; and I dare say, they would pay no more respect to the finest Italian Queen. Yet, in view of the good that these birds do, unless they are far more numerous and troublesome than I have ever observed them to be, I should certainly be slow to recommend the death warrant.

The same may be said of the toads, which may often be seen sitting demurely at the entrance of the hives, and lapping up the full-laden bees with the lightning-like movement of their tongues, in a manner which can but be regarded with interest, even by him who suffers loss. Mr. Moon, the well known apiarist, made this an objection to low hives; yet, the advantage of such hives far more than compensates, and with a bottom-board, such as described in the chapter on hives, we shall find that the toads do very little damage.

These little pests are a consummate nuisance about theapiary. They enter the hives in winter, mutilate the comb, irritate, perhaps destroy, the bees, and create a very offensive stench. They often greatly injure comb which is outside the hive, destroy smokers, by eating the leather off the bellows, and if they get at the seeds of honey plants, they never retreat till they make a complete work of destruction.

In the house and cellar, these plagues should be, by use of eat or trap, completely exterminated. If we winter on the summer stands, the entrance should be so contracted that mice cannot enter the hive. In case of packing as I have recommended, I should prefer a more ample opening, which may be safely secured by taking a piece of wire cloth or perforated tin, and tacking it over the entrance, letting it come within one-fourth of an inch of the bottom-board. This will give more air, and still preclude the entrance of these miserable vermin. (SeeAppendix, page 293).

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