i86 JUNGLE ISLAND 



garden that they planted on the hospital grounds. 

 And, indeed, it did flourish much better than 

 their patients did. A great pest in this garden 

 was the Attas, the gardening ants, who would 

 strip a whole orange tree of its leaves in a night, 

 to make beds for their own mushrooms. To 

 protect the trees and shrubs from the ants, the 

 nuns had their gardeners put an earthenware ring 

 full of water around the roots of each plant. The 

 water kept the ants away perfectly, because they 

 do not like to swim, but it also made the best of 

 nurseries for yellow fever mosquitoes, so that 

 there were always numbers of them around the 

 hospital. The workmen dreaded to come to the 

 hospital, unless they were already immune, 

 because they were sure to catch yellow fever 

 before they were discharged. 



The Americans destroyed thousands of these 

 water rings. Since they wanted to save some of 

 the plants, too, they set to work to kill off the 

 gardening ants. At last both hospital patients 

 and orange trees were safe. 



All the houses where Canal Zone employees 

 lived were screened, and the larger buildings 

 were smoked out with insect powder every 

 two weeks, to kill any mosquitoes that might 

 have crept in through cracks and open doors. 

 Colonel Gorgas used that first year all the 

 insect powder he could buy in the United 

 States. None was left on the market. 



