BEES AND FRUIT.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXI, Issue 3048, 19 November 1908, Page 6

BEES AND FRUIT.

The Queensland Beekeepers' Association submits the following notes by Mr D. Jones on the subject of bees and fruit crops:—"While visiting a suburban gardener a few days since, complaint was made by me of bees injuring last year's crop of grapes. The matter cropped up some years ago at a meeting of the Brisbane Horticultural Society.when the matter was fully discussed, and a complete refutation given to the charge against our innocent bees. That they do take advantage of what otherwise would be waste fruit juices is a fact which establishes a sound law in the economy of Nature; lor bees will only avail themselves of such fruit juices as appear on fruit already punctured by other insects depredators, such as fruit flies, birds, etc. In Queensland we often find, in certain seasons, grapes punctured by the fruit fly. This causes an exudation of juice which the alert bee is sure to seize on, with the result that he is charged as being the culprit originating the injury. Entomological study of the structure, of the bees' mouth clearly demonstrates his inability to puncture or injure fruit by such a process. In the case of fruit fly attacks, the bees render practical service in restricting the reproduction of the fly, as, by reason of the thorough manner in v,hich the bees drain the injured grape of its juices, thep leave only skin which will not sustain the larvae, if developed from the egg, originally deposited by the fly. Fruitgrowers may well look upon bees as their most valuable allies," particularly in Queensland, where so many new varieties of fruits are being experimented with, dependent, as many are, on prompt and perfect pollinisation, which, without ths aid of bees, could not be successfully accomplished."