March 10, 1910 



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Wood Damaged hy White Ants 



It is not unusual to read of the damage done by white ants to 

 wood in the Philippines a.nd other trojiical countries; but it seems 

 to be talien for granted tliat no sufh injury occurs in the United 

 States. That is a mistake, thougli the damage done in this country 

 is small in comparison with that reported in some foreign countries. 



The hurricane which struck New Orleans last year and damaged 

 Tiundreds of buildings revealed the fact, which was not suspected 

 before, that white ants had contributed to the damage by weakening 

 the timbers with their galleries. It is difficult to say just how much 

 of the injury can properly be charged against the ants; but they 

 helped the hurricane wreck manj- a building. 



Timber near the foundation of the National Museum in Wash- 

 ington, D. C, became so badly mutilated by ants that it had to be 

 torn out and new foundations and floors i)ut in. 



This, together with many other depredations by these insects, led 

 the government to look into the activities of the white ants, and 

 the result was recently published by the Bureau of Entomology, in 

 the Department of Agriculture, as Bulletin 333. The bulletin was 

 written by Thomas E. Snyder. 



The case made out against the white ant is surprisingly strong. 

 It is found to be active in every nook and corner of the United 

 States, and wherever it exists it causes injury, not only to wood 

 but to many other things, including doth, paper, books, flour, rice, 

 and many other things. 



First of all, however, the insect is not an ant. It is a wholly 

 different bug; but it looks like an ant and is generally known by 

 that title, and popular knowledge would not be much increased by 

 calling it by its Latin name Leucotermes flavipes, or its English 

 translation, "yellow-footed white termite." 

 Works in the Dark 



The insect works in the dark. It conceals its activities. Some 

 of the species are blind, but have sense enough to distinguish light 

 from darkness. If they want to attack a house foundation, a railway 

 tie, a pile of lumber, or an old stump, they tunnel under it and thus 

 begin their work hidden from view. They never show themselves 

 while at work unless some accident reveals them. They gnaw gal- 

 leries through the wood until the whole inside is honeycombed and 

 consumed, but they are careful to leave an outer shell which com- 

 pletely hides them. This shell may be little thicker than paper, but 

 it conceals the destruction that goes on within. The first warning 

 may come when the timber breaks or the floor collapses. It is then 

 too late to take measures to prevent the damage. 



There is little that can be done to defeat the purposes of this white 

 pest. Kerosene puts a quietus on its activities if it can be applied, 

 but usually that is impossible even if the places where the gnawing 

 is going on could be discovered. The ant generally, in attacking a 

 building, gets into the foundation timbers, and works upward, tun- 

 neling galleries as it goes, and by that route it enters the sills, 

 sleepers, and floor.s. It may, in course of years, make its way to 

 the second or even the third floor of a residence, mill, or factory. 

 Gnawing Dry Wood 



It is commonly but erroneously believed that the white ant in 

 this country attacks damp, partly decayed wood only. That is the 

 kind it prefers, but it tunnels through sound, dry wood also. It 

 may destroy bone-dry window frames, and has been known to do so. 

 It works in fence posts, telephone poles, the railing and pickets of 

 fences, and the bottom boards of plank fences. Its destructive work 

 goes even farther than that. It ma.v attack living trees and greatly 

 injure and ultimately kill them. It generally enters by way of the 

 roots and works upward into the trunk; but it may gain entrance by 

 means of holes bored by larva of other insects in the trunks above 

 ground. 



The true ant makes its home in the trunks of decaying trees 

 also ; but it is not in the same class as the white pest. 

 Likes and Dislikes 



The white ant exhibits likes and dislikes in its wood-eating propen- 



sities; but its likes greatly outnumber its dislikes. It is said to dis- 

 like black walnut so nmch that no attack is ever made on that wood. 

 Several foreign woods are reputed to he white- ant proof. The Cali- 

 fornia redwood is untouched by white ants in the Philippines where 

 these insects are ten times worse than in the United States; yet 

 redwood is not immune to the attacks of the white ant in America. 



It has been found that when timber has been treated with creosote 

 or other preservatives to hinder decay, the white ant's appetite for it 

 is considerably lessened; yet, such timbers are sometimes destroyed. 

 The ants manage to find an opening through the shell of treated 

 wood forming the outside surface of the timber; and when once 

 inside that zone, they proceed with the work of destruction. 



Greater or less resistance to attacks by white ants is offered by 

 the cedars, both eastern and western, and by southern cypress. 



Paving blocks are peculiarly liable to attack, and foundations for 

 lumber piles — yards, platforms, and wharfs. It is claimed that 

 coflins deep under ground, or at least the pine burying boxes in 

 which coffins are enclosed, are attacked by white ants which burrow 

 down to them. That may account for the frequency with which 

 colonies of white ants are seen in cemeteries. 



These insects have their nests in the ground or in the interiors of 

 old stumps, logs, or in stone walls. At intervals they swarm like 

 bees and niove to new quarters. Their habit is to fly a short dis- 

 tance, from 75 to 100 feet, then drop to the ground. The swaims 

 during migration are attacked by binis, and the insects are devouied 

 in immense numbers. They are too slow to escape. Eobins become 

 so gorged with them that they cannot close their bills, and as many 

 as 1,100 have been taken from the crop of a single woodpecker. Other 

 creatures prey on tliem also. The common ant kills them, and the 

 land lizards in the region from Texas to California devour the white 

 ant as a business. It constitutos the lizard's daily bread. 



Sometimes the ants are winged, sometimes not. At certain periods 

 in life they twist one another's wings off, by this means confining 

 their activities to the ground. Apparently, a -hard rain may pound 

 their wings off; for all that remains visible of a swarm after a 

 dashing rain may be thousands of wings glittering on the ground 

 like silver, the insects probably escaping by running for shelter. 



Stone and cement foundations for buildings do not always jjrotect 

 adjacent timbers from attack by white ants. Their nests may be 

 established in the crevices of the masonry or the cracks in the cement, 

 and from that close range they attack the foundation timbers and do 

 much harm. 



The Resaw in the Mill 



At one time the makers of circular or baud resaws figured u] on 

 selling their product mainly to factories and planing mills working 

 up lumber. The sawmill man was considered a possible customer 

 only when he equipped a planing mill or box factory in conjunction 

 with the sawmill. 



There has been a change in the resaw trade and the customers for 

 resaws during the past ten years ; for today the biggest customers for 

 the biggest resaws are the sawmill men. Sawmilling involves both 

 sawing and resawing and one finds many resaws taking an active part 

 in sawmill operations. 



It was the band saw which brought it about with the desire to 

 reduce kerf loss. No one ever thought of using an old-time circular 

 resaw in the sawmill proper. There were gang and buzz saws for 

 working four and six inch flitches into flooring or strips, but it was 

 the band saw that put the resaw- into the sawmill. After the band 

 saw became the recognized miD saw , the idea was conceived of using 

 a somewhat smaller machine and a thinner saw to help out the 

 original mill saw. This idea has been extended considerably so that 

 today the resaw is an important item in modern mill designing on 

 the one hand, while on the other hand the sawmill is an important 

 market place for the band resaw. 



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