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.
ROBBING.
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 are _very rarely_ molested, 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, is all 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.
DISEASE.
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 in Chapter XVII. As the methods to prevent this have
already been sufficiently considered, we pass to the terrible
FOUL BROOD.
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 a stench, 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.
REMEDIES.
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 research and 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--and thus becomes disagreeable. I have found that a
very little salicylic acid will render it sterile, and thus preserve it
indefinitely.
ENEMIES OF BEES.
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."
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.
[Illustration: Fig. 102.]
THE BEE MOTH--_Galleria Cereana_, Fabr.
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 hop
moth, and the noxious meal and clover moths, and its members are very
readily recognized by their unusually long palpi, the so-called snouts.
[Illustration: 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 six jointed,
and the ten prop-legs--making sixteen in all, the usual number of
caterpillars--are plainly visible.
[Illustration: Fig. 104.]
[Illustration: Fig. 105.]
[Illustration: 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 they
are 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.
[Illustration: 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 the severe 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.
HISTORY.
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.
REMEDIES.
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 from danger. 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.
BEE KILLER--_Asilus Missouriensis_, Riley.
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 before they 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.
[Illustration: Fig. 108.]
[Illustration: Fig. 109.
_Imago._ _Larva._]
BEE-LOUSE--_Branla Cœca_, Nitsch.
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 and most 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.
IMPORTANT SUGGESTION.
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.
BEE HAWK--_Libellula_.
This large, fine lace wing is a neuropterous insect. It works in the
Southern States and is called Mosquito-hawk.--Insects of 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, in _Gleanings_, 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.
[Illustration: Fig. 110.]
TACHINA FLY.
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.
SPIDERS.
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.
ANTS.
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.
WASPS.
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 do immense 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.
THE KING BIRD--_Tyrannus Carolinensis_.
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 TOADS.
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.
MICE.
These little pests are a consummate nuisance about the apiary. 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. (See
Appendix, page 293).