Other Symptoms Of Worms

Categories: ENEMIES OF BEES.
Bee Keeping: Mysteries Of Bee-keeping Explained

But when the bees make no effort to dislodge the enemy or his works in

old stocks, the case is somewhat desperate! Instead of the foregoing

symptoms we must look for something entirely different. But few young

bees will be found. In their place we may find the faeces of the worms

dropped on the board. During winter and spring the bees, in biting off

the covering of cells to get at the honey, drop chips closely

resembli g it. To detect the difference and distinguish one from the

other requires a little close inspection. The color of the faeces varies

with the comb on which they feed, from white to brown and black. The

size of these grains will be in proportion to the worm--from a mere

speck to nearly as large as a pin-head: shape cylindrical, with obtuse

ends: length about twice its diameter. By the quantity we can judge of

the number. If the hive is full of combs the lower ends may appear

perfect, while the middle or upper part is sometimes a mat of webs!



Whenever our stocks have become reduced from over-swarming or other

cause, this is the next effect in succession that we must expect. Here

is another important reason that we know the _actual_ condition of our

bees at all times; we can then detect the worms very soon after they

commence. In some instances we might save the stock by breaking out

most of the combs, leaving just enough to be covered by the bees. When

success attends this operation, it _must_ be done before the worms have

progressed to a thorough lodgment. When the stock is weak, and

appearances indicate the presence of many, it is generally the safest,

and will be the least trouble in the end, to drive out the bees at once

and secure the honey and wax. The bees when put into a new hive _may_

do a little, but if they should do nothing, it would be no worse. It

cannot be as bad any way as to have left them in the old hive till the

worms had destroyed all and matured a thousand or two moths in addition

to those otherwise produced, thereby multiplying the chances of damage

to other stocks a thousand-fold. It is probably remembered that I said

when bees are removed from a hive in warm weather, if it was not

infested with worms at the time, it soon would be, unless smoked with

sulphur.