ENEMIES OF BEES.
Among the enemies of bees are enumerated various kinds of birds, poultry, mice, wax-moths, slugs, hornets, wasps, woodlice, ants, and spiders.
The most destructive enemies of the bee, in this country, are wasps, whose superior strength, boldness and number, enable them to commit great ravages in a hive. One wasp is supposed to be a match for three bees, and, to filch a belly-full of honey, will oppose a host of bees in a very daring manner.
The wax-moth (Tinea mellonella) is also a dangerous enemy. Mr. Espinasse says that this is the smallest of the genus, and it is of a whitish brown colour. The butterfly usually appears about weak hives in April, and may be seen till the end of October. This insect is remarkably active in its movements; and if the approach to the hives be observed of a moonlight evening, the moths will be found flying, or running round the hives, watching an opportunity to enter; whilst the bees that have to guard the entrances against their intrusion, will be seen acting as vigilant sentinels, performing continual rounds near this important post, extending their antennæ to the utmost, and moving them to the right and to the left alternately. Woe to the unfortunate moth that comes within their reach! “It is curious,” says Huber, “to observe how artfully the moth knows to profit, to the disadvantage of the bees, which require much light for seeing objects; and the precautions taken by the latter in reconnoitring, and expelling so dangerous an enemy.” Adroitly gliding between the guards, the moths will often contrive to insinuate themselves, unperceived, into the hives, and riot upon the honey. When they have obtained possession, they deposit their eggs upon the sides of the combs; the caterpillar is formed and inclosed in a case of white silk; at first, it is like a mere thread, but gradually increases to the size of a quill, and during its growth feeds upon the wax around it. It seems very extraordinary, and would be almost incredible if the fact were not well attested, that such tiny creatures should live in the midst, and at the expense of myriads of such formidable insects as bees, protected as they are by coats of mail, armed with weapons of offence, and ever watchful of their treasure. Such, however, is the havoc sometimes made by these apparently insignificant, but active enemies, as now and then to compel a colony of bees to emigrate, and seek another habitation.
In this country, where the apiary is generally situated near the dwelling, birds do not commit any great ravages. Mr. Espinasse thinks that in general they come only for dead bees and larvæ, which may have been thrown out of the hives. But in America, according to Mr. Hector St. John, the king bird, the protector of corn-fields from the depredation of crows, is a great destroyer of bees. After shooting these birds, Mr. St. John has found bees in their craws, from one of which he took as many as a hundred-and-seventy-one: on laying them all on a blanket in the sun, fifty-four of them returned to life, licked themselves clean, and joyfully went back to their hives. Many wonderful tales of this kind have been told,—such as the recovery of flies that had been inclosed for a considerable time in bottles of liquor (madeira). An instance of this is related by Wildman, who says his informant was a very ingenious and accurate gentleman:—that the madeira had been brought, in bottle, from Virginia to London, and that the flies when exposed to a warm sun for an hour or two, were so completely reanimated, as to take wing; thus putting to the test, as Wildman’s friend observed, the truth of the opinion, that a fly cannot be drowned.—A very marvellous tale was related last year in the newspapers, of the recovery of some apparently dead bees after the substance containing them had been submitted to a considerable heat or to a chemical process. Mr. St. John’s statement is within the bounds of credibility: it seems to have been a case of suspended animation of short continuance, not produced by exposure to gas or to any liquid likely to prove deleterious to them; and it is well known that bees often recover even after suffocation with sulphurous gas. Bees may be immersed in water for a long time, without loss of life. Reaumur saw them recover after nine hours immersion. Dr. Evans accidentally left some eighteen hours in water; when laded out with a spoon and placed in the sunshine the majority of them recovered. Other animals, of analogous species, exhibit still more wonderful resurrections. De Geer has observed one species of mite to live for some time in spirit of wine; and Mr. Kirby states that being desirous of preserving a very pretty lady-bird, and not knowing how to accomplish it, he immersed it in geneva. “After leaving it,” says he, “in this situation a day and a night, and seeing it without motion, I concluded it was dead, and laid it in the sun to dry. It no sooner, however, felt the warmth than it began to move, and afterwards flew away.” This circumstance laid the foundation of Mr. K.’s study of entomology.
Of this adherence to life, advantage has been taken at the time of deprivation,—recourse having been had to immersion for removing a portion of the combs, the bees were afterwards spread on a cloth in the sun, and became reanimated. Dr. Derham says that he has known bees revive after remaining twenty-four hours under an exhausted air-pump. After long submersion the proboscis of the bee is generally unfolded, and stretched to its full length. The first symptom of returning animation, is a motion at its extremity, succeeded by a similar motion at the extremities of the legs. Having so far progressed towards recovery, the tongue is soon folded up again, and the bee prepared to resume its customary occupations.
Moths and spiders should be watched and destroyed in an evening, as at that time the former are hovering about, and the latter laying their snares; at that time too there would be less danger of annoying the bees, or of being annoyed by them. Wherever moths have gained possession of a hive, it is always necessary to destroy the bees, or to drive them into another hive.
Attention to the following particulars may guard the bees from many of their enemies. A frequent cleaning of the hive floors; the use of new or well cleaned hives; the timely renewal of the coverings, and keeping the ground bare around the apiary, particularly in front of it. This last precaution may also prevent the entanglement of the bees in rubbish or long straggling vegetables, should they on their return home fall down through fatigue or the weight of their loads.
From rats and mice the surest safeguard is an appropriate position of the hives; traps may also be laid, and in winter the entrances into the hives contracted. It will be prudent likewise to case the legs of the bee-benches with tin. Bees in a healthy vigorous state will attack and kill an intruding mouse; but in winter it might commit great depredations, and cause the emigration of the bees on the return of warm weather. (Mr. Espinasse says that he has known a mouse take up his winter quarters in a hive, without destroying the bees.)
For protection against ants, which sometimes enter the hives and eat the honey, Mr. Cobbett, in his Cottage Economy, recommends that the pedestals or legs of the benches supporting the hives should be surrounded by a green stick, twisted into a circular form and covered with tar; and if the ant nest can be traced, that boiling water should be poured into the centre of it, at night, when all the family are at home. The tarring of the stick should be repeated every two or three days: the legs of the stool, or the posts on which the shed stands, may also be tarred. Some bees may be lost by sticking in the tar, but this disadvantage will be more than counter-balanced by the destruction of the ants. Slaked lime may be beneficially spread about a foot wide round the apiary. The usual custom has been to renew this sprinkling of lime every two or three days: but the experiments of Mr. Coleridge (Southey’s Brazil, i. 645) show that this step is unnecessary: by exposure to the air, lime is converted into chalk; and according to Mr. C, (who states that the formic acid transpires from the bodies of ants so as to leave its traces upon the substances which they traverse,) if ants attempt to pass over chalk, the effervescence produced between the chalk and the acid will be so considerable as to burn their legs. It has been said that a bee cannot kill an ant, when bitten; but that the bee instead of making resistance, flies away and carries the ant with it.