THE ENEMIES OF BEES.
Birds--Mice--Moths--_Braula cœca_--Hornets and Wasps--Spiders--
Toads--"Robber Bees"--Prevention of robbing.
It might well be imagined that creatures armed with such deadly weapons
as bees, would have few enemies who would dare to contend with them.
The fact is, however, that they are exposed to dangers from numerous
sources. Various kinds of wild birds, domestic fowls, mice, certain
species of moths, hornets, wasps, ants, spiders and toads, are more or
less destructive to them.
Among the common birds fond of these insects as food, may be mentioned
the titmouse tribe. Mr. Hunter says he has found hundreds of stings
of bees adhering to a fence, evidently extracted by these active
and clever little birds previous to swallowing their prey. Their
depredations, however, are usually not great, and they are often
satisfied to regale themselves on the dead insects which are carried
out of the hive. In America, the King-bird (_Tyrannus muscicapa_) is
mentioned by Langstroth as devouring scores of our winged friends,
which he does not hesitate to seize on flower-blossoms, showing,
indeed, a sensible preference for those who are distending their
honey-bags with nectar. The swallow was credited by the Greeks with
being a robber of apiaries, as the address of the old poet indicates:--
"Attic maiden, honey-fed,
Chirping warbler, bear'st away
Thou the busy buzzing bee,
To thy callow brood a prey?
Warbler, thou a warbler seize?
Winged, one with lovely wings?
Guest thyself, by summer brought,
Yellow guests whom summer brings?
Wilt not quickly let it drop?
'Tis not fair; indeed, 'tis wrong,
That the ceaseless warbler should
Die by mouth of ceaseless song." [6]
[Footnote 6: Translation given in _Langstroth on the Honey-Bee_.]
We have no reason to charge our swallows with the crime of bee-eating.
Domestic fowls will sometimes regale themselves with a meal of live
bees, it they can reach the entrances to the hives, so that it is
advisable to forbid their access to them. Mice occasionally effect an
entrance, especially into skeps, and annoy the inhabitants by their
disagreeable odour, and by gnawing the combs, and eating brood and
honey. The winter is the time when there is most danger from these
plunderers, as the bees are then too torpid with the cold to notice
and to attack the intruders. It is easy to prohibit their inroads, by
sufficiently contracting the entrances, and preventing their gnawing
the rims of the hives, or getting under the top coverings.
Moths, being active at night, require constant watchfulness on the
part of the bee-sentinels to exclude them from their abodes. Attracted
partly by the favourable conditions for egg-hatching, through the
steady warmth kept up in the hives, they lay their eggs in crevices,
and along the borders of bee-homes. The larvæ, when able to crawl, make
their way over the combs, which, with their contents, they greedily
devour, and if attacking in large numbers they sometimes prove fatal to
a stock.
[Illustration: Fig. 42.--The Enemies of Bees.]
The two kinds most destructive are the British wax-moth, _Achroia
grisella_, and the _Galleria mellonella_. The latter is more
troublesome in Italy than in our own country. If the population of a
hive be strong and in thoroughly sound condition, there is not much
danger to be apprehended from either of these foes. Should, however, a
colony be weak, and still more if queenless, such a hold may be gained
by these their lepidopterous enemies, as will be wholly ruinous. Combs
in store are yet more liable to their attacks, but the moths may be
dislodged, and their eggs or larvæ destroyed, by exposing such combs
to the fumes of burning brimstone. An examination of hive-coverings
and floor-boards in the spring and autumn, and the destruction of all
grubs found about them, will often save much trouble from the moths.
The presence of these intruders among the combs may be detected by
the occurrence of their excrement, resembling grains of very fine
gunpowder, on the floor-boards.
The death's-head moth, _Acherontia Atropos_, is also said, by some
writers, to be troublesome to apiarians; but it is too rare an insect
to be seriously destructive. A parasitic louse, called _Braula
cœca_, is occasionally found in considerable numbers in hives on the
Continent. Happily, the English climate does not appear to suit its
constitution well, so that its occurrence is not very frequent, and is
generally the result of the introduction of Ligurians and other foreign
varieties into an apiary.
Pre-eminent among the enemies of bees stand hornets and wasps,
particularly the latter in the autumn of the year. They are active,
courageous, and persistent robbers; and, unless the hive-entrance be
well guarded, they will slip in, and, escaping notice, will pilfer
the honey without stint. So determined are their attacks, that they
will utterly ruin weak colonies, and will sometimes so dishearten even
tolerably vigorous ones, as to make them desert their hives. When once
they have learnt there are stores to be plundered, they do not fail
to come in numbers if they know that only a feeble resistance will
be offered to them. Various means of stopping their depredations may
be adopted. The most radical measure is to destroy queen-wasps in the
spring. They are the only ones in existence then, and are considerably
larger than their worker-daughters. Again, every wasp's nest in the
neighbourhood of an apiary should be got rid of, by pouring gas-tar
into the entrances, and ramming earth over it. Thirdly, by hanging a
narrow-necked bottle of sweetened beer near the bee-hives, many wasps
will be attracted to the liquid; and, becoming surfeited and silly,
will be unable to escape, and will be drowned. A fourth precaution
is to narrow the entrances of the hives, so that one or two bees can
defend them. The sentinels are able to master these their enemies in
fair fight; indeed, the wasps rarely show any inclination for a battle.
They trust to their activity and boldness, rather than to any real
courage. The best preventive measure is to keep the stocks of bees
strong. It is usually only the weak who suffer serious attacks from
their insect enemies.
Spiders prove a nuisance and destructive, chiefly by spinning webs into
which the weary workers fall when returning home, or into which they
unwarily rush on emerging from their abodes. Care in sweeping away the
cobwebs will remove danger from this source.
Toads are credited, or charged, with a love of honey-filled bees, and
may sometimes be seen watching their opportunity of making a meal near
the entrances, where they are said to pick up many a dainty morsel with
honey-sauce ready made. These slowly-moving creatures may easily be
caught and taken away, so as to do no more mischief.
We must not pass from this part of our subject without speaking of the
aptness of bees to rob one another. If an unfortunate individual makes
the mistake of going to a hive not its own, it will immediately be
seized as an intruder. In the hope of propitiating the assailants, it
will extend its proboscis, and offer some of its internal honey-store.
Nor will the custodians refuse to accept what is evidently intended as
a peace-offering; but they will not cease their attempt to drag off
or to kill the interloper, who is happy if able to escape from the
onslaught. This kind of robbery is, in a manner, to be regarded as
justifiable.
Such is not the case, however, with the organised or desultory pillage
which frequently goes on when the inability of a stock to defend itself
has been discovered by its neighbours. We have known the contents of
a hive completely cleared out by "robber-bees" in a few hours, crowds
of them rushing in and filling themselves. Then, having carried the
spoil to their own homes, they will return again and again, till
there is nothing left for them to plunder. Of course the community
attacked wholly perishes in the battle or from starvation. Nor is
this the worst of such an occurrence; for, when once these unhallowed
sweets have been tasted, when these insects--it must be confessed,
of very low morality--have discovered that robbery is much more easy
and more productive of results than honest work, they appear seized
with a perfect mania for living as freebooters, and will attempt hive
after hive, when their first onslaught has been effective. Terrible
mischief is often the result; for, not only is the habit of ordinary
nectar-seeking broken off, but fierce battles are fought with strong
stocks, and many hundreds of the combatants perish. Moreover, the
ordinary avocations of an assailed colony are completely interrupted,
and general disturbance, if not complete disorganisation, prevails.
Such a disastrous state of things is sometimes begun by carelessness
on the part of the bee-keeper, in allowing pieces of honey-comb to lie
about within reach of any of his stocks. The taste of the sweet liquid,
for which they have a perfect passion, seems to act like a glass of
gin on an abstainer who has formerly been a drunkard. Their thirst
for more is fired, and, once enkindled, will not easily subside. It
is particularly necessary, therefore, especially in the late summer
and the autumn, when supplies from flowers begin to fall short, to
take care not to provoke the lust of having honey at all hazards, by
allowing any to be exposed to the smelling or other perceptive powers
of the bees. It is equally important in feeding stocks to prevent any
exposure of the syrup, and not to permit stranger-bees to get at the
feeding-bottles.
If the mischief of robbing is detected in its early stage, much may
be done to stop it by narrowing the hive entrances, so that only one
bee at a time can get in. This will enable the sentinels to examine
each one who tries to enter, and to turn back strangers. If, however,
the evil has taken a serious hold, it is better to close the attacked
hive altogether for a time, and to hang near the entrance a sponge
or cloth soaked in diluted carbolic acid, or some liquid potent and
disagreeable in its odour. If these methods are of no avail, it will
be better to remove the colony to a distance, or to a dark cellar; and
by taking care to secure ventilation, and to give a supply of syrup,
the community, which would otherwise surely perish, may be rescued.
If returned in three or four days to its former stand, it is well to
take the precaution of placing a sloping board before the entrance,
so that its exact position may escape the notice of would-be robbers.
These can often be detected early in their operations by their hovering
restlessly in front of a hive, without the courage to settle, or,
perhaps, because they do not know precisely where the opening is. A
shower from a watering-pot will sometimes send them about their own
proper business.
Another method for stopping robber-bees from their plundering is
to put at night into the hive attacked a small quantity of some
strongly-smelling substance--a little musk, for example. The unwonted
odour seems to rouse the inhabitants, and if they have a healthy queen,
they will, in the morning, resolutely meet the robbers. Moreover, if
any of these get in, the musk will so scent them that when they return
to their own hives they will not be recognised by their own people,
but will be put to death; and thus a double check is put on their
depredations.
It is a remarkable fact that, if a robbed colony be queenless, or if
the queen is killed in the _mélée_, survivors from the fight will often
fall to on the remnants of the stores, and, joining the forces of the
conquerors, will convey the honey to the hive whose inhabitants are
the plunderers, and will be peacefully accepted as citizens among its
population. Of course the absence or the slaughter of a queen much
more readily exposes her disheartened subjects to attacks from other
bees; and this is another reason for seeing that no such calamity as
queenlessness has befallen any stock when food is scarce.
In the facts recorded in this chapter we have striking evidence of "the
struggle for existence" which seems to have been ordained as "a law
of nature" in this world. We can readily discern some useful purposes
connected with it, both as regards conquerors and vanquished. For, on
the one hand, it is for the benefit of the race that the strongest
individuals should, as a rule, survive to propagate it; and, on the
other, it is better for a sharp and speedy end to occur to a weak
community, rather than that it should perish by the slow pangs of
hunger, or from inability to continue the rearing of a progeny. But,
even in this respect, as in several others, bees furnish a serious
difficulty to the theory of evolution. For it is not the strong and
victorious community which propagates the race, but the individual
queen; and she, of course, may be weaker than the one whose stock has
been destroyed by the more numerous robbers. The case evidently is not
a genuine one of "survival of the fittest," so far as the succeeding
generations are concerned; nor do we find any special adaptation for
future advantages secured. The battle is lost and won, but there can be
no impress made, even by successive victories, on the general physical
condition of the stronger party; for the fight is never undertaken
by a single drone or queen, who alone can transmit any qualities to
posterity.