10 FARMERS’ BULLETIN 1740. 
at the proper season, the winged males and females. During most 
of the year, however, the colony consists almost exclusively of work- 
ers, with one or more perfect wingless females. Winged males and 
females are produced during the summer and almost immediately 
take their nuptial flight. The males soon perish, and the females 
shortly afterward tear off their own wings, which are but feebly 
attached, and set about the establishment of new colonies. The eggs, 
which are produced in extraordinary numbers by the females or 
“queen” ants, are very minute, oval, whitish objects, and are cared 
for by the workers, the young larvee being fed in very much the same 
way as in the colonies of the hive bee. The so-called ant eggs, in 
the popular conception, are not eggs at all, but the white larve and 
pupe, and those of females or males are much larger than those of 
the workers and many times larger than the true eggs. 
MEANS OF CONTROLLING HOUSE AND LAWN ANTS. 
DESTRUCTION OF HOUSE COLONIES. 
The distinctively house-inhabiting ants, such as the little red or 
Pharaoh’s ant, and other imported species nesting in the woodwork, 
masonry, or articles of furniture, etc., are often very difficult to 
eradicate because of their inaccessibility. If the nest can be located 
by following the workers back to their point of disappearance, the in- 
mates of the nest, if near by, may sometimes be reached by inject- 
ing a little bisulphid of carbon, kerosene, or gasoline into the open- 
ing by means of an oil can or small syringe. Jn the use of these 
substances, naturally, precautions should be taken to see that no fire 
is present, as all of them are inflammable. Tf the nest is under fioor- 
ing it may sometimes be gotten at by removing a section; but, as a 
rule, unless the colony can thus be reached and destroyed other meas- 
ures are of only temporary avail if food or other conditions continue 
to attract the ants and facilitate their continued breeding in the house. 
The removal, therefore, of the attracting substances in houses, 
wherever practical, should be the first step. Ants are attracted by 
food material, especially cake, bread, sugar, meat, and like sub- 
stances, in pantries and elsewhere, and the nuisance of their presence 
can be largely limited by promptly cleaning up all food scattered by 
children and by keeping in the pantry or storeroom all food supplies 
which may attract ants, in ant-proof metal containers or in ice boxes, 
and limiting the amount of such articles as far as possible to daily 
needs. 
That it is possible to drive ants away from household supplies by 
the use of repellents, particularly camphor and naphthalene flakes or 
powdered moth balls, has been asserted. The use of most of such 
repellent substances, however, in connection with food supplies, -is 
impracticable, and careful tests have indicated that such substances 
