A Glimpse into the Past: Lousy Honey Bees in Carroll County

The following information appeared in the Democratic Advocate on Oct. 5, 1923. 

Lousy Honey Bees—Carroll county is distinguished at this time as having within her borders more honey bees per square mile than any other part of Maryland.

She is also on the map as the only spot in the whole United States having lousy bees. Yes, lice on bees. Real parasites that have the government bee experts in Washington laying awake nights trying to figure out a way to get them off the little honey makers.

Dr. E. L. Sechrist, of the Bureau of Entomology, together with experts in the National Museum, at Washington, have made a thorough study of the new pest in the bee yards of Rockward and Sterling Nusbaum, near Taneytown. The Nusbaum boys are Maryland's largest commercial honey producers.

Rockward Nusbaum discovered these lice amongst his bees more than five years ago. Since that time they have been spreading about at an alarming rate. The lice seem to be very anxious to ride around on the queen bee. As high as sixteen lice have been seen on one queen. This seriously interrupts the egg laying of her royal highness and since the queen lays all the eggs for the colony the lice diminish the force of workers in the hive.

This information was supplied by the Historical Society of Carroll County.