RELATION TO THE HOUSEHOLD 243 



Sometimes ants make their nests just outside of our 

 houses, on the lawns, and while this does not bring 

 them strictly under this chapter head, we may digress 

 for a moment to consider them as a nuisance. With a 

 cane or other stick poke a few holes to the depth of 

 about ten inches near and about the centre of the nest, 

 and into each hole pour about one ounce of bisulphide 

 of carbon, covering the hole by stepping on it. The 

 fumes will penetrate throughout the galleries and kill 

 all the ants and their larvae that are 

 reached. Usually one application is 

 enough; if by any chance there is 

 renewed activity about the nest a few 

 days later, repeat the application. 



Within our houses three or four 

 much smaller species make their 

 homes, and establish colonies. There 

 is a small red ant, a larger black ant, 

 a very small black ant and, more ,„r;y;,t~t'°::: 

 occasionally, a very small red ant. pharaoms. 

 They differ materially in their habits 

 and somewhat in their Hfe cycle, but for our purpose 

 are enough alike to be considered together. Like all 

 ants the colonies consist of a queen, a large number of 

 workers and, in the late summer and early spring, also 

 the males and females that will at the proper time 

 leave the nest to swarm. Only the workers are seen as 

 a rule, and these swarm over everything in the nature 

 of food, and cart it off to their nests which are situated 

 behind base-boards, in crevices behind the plaster or in 

 the masonry, or anywhere in the shell of the house where 

 they can establish themselves. Once a house is thor- 

 oughly infested the task of getting rid of them becomes 

 a serious one and can be accomplished only by persistent 

 work ; but it can be accomplished. In the first place lo- 



