82 GRASSHOPPERS AND OTHER INJURIOUS INSECTS OF 1911 AND 1912. 



pandages later. The true fertilized females, or "queens" are the 

 egg producers in a colony and it should be noted in seeking meas- 

 ures of relief, that unless these queens are killed, the colony goes on 

 increasing in numbers, no matter how successful one may be in kill- 

 ing of the workers or imperfect females. The grubs hatched from 

 the eggs are helpless and cared for by the workers, but the small 

 white bodies one sees being carried about by the workers when a 

 large ant hill is broken into, or a colony uncovered, are not, as a rule, 

 either the eggs, or their grub, but cocoons spun by the grubs, and en- 

 closing the pupae. These are the precious burdens which the ants, 

 terrified by the catastrophe to their dwelling, first seek to carry to a 

 place of safety. 



Ants are very persistent in their food-seeking instinct, as many 

 a housekeeper has had occasion to observe, and yet frequently the 

 casual observer in a garden misjudges these insects, thinking they 

 are injuring a plant or a tree when they are really doing nothing- 

 of the kind. For instance, the ants seen on peony buds rarely if ever 

 bite into the bud itself, but are attracted to it only on account of the 

 covering of "varnish" over the bud, which is to their liking. Again, 

 one frequently sees ants ascending snowball bushes, fruit trees, and 

 various garden shrubs. These ants are not injuring the shrubs or 

 trees frequented, but a little search on the part of the observer will 

 disclose numerous colonies of plant lice on the tree or shrub in ques- 

 tion, busily engaged in sucking sap through the bark or leaf. These 

 plant lice give up to the ants a sweet liquid, elaborate within their 

 bodies, referred to sometimes as "honey dew" of which the latter in- 

 sects are very fond. In fact, so fond are they of this exudation that 

 they take every means in their power to protect these creatures, 

 which may be justly regarded as the ants' "cows." At least one 

 form of plant lice is so well appreciated by one of our small species 

 of ants that the latter take the eggs of the former into their burrows 

 at the approach of cold weather, and bring them up again in the 

 spring. Indirectly, then, by conserving injurious insects, the ants 

 do injure our trees, shrubs and plants. For that matter the writer 

 has seen a large snowball practically girdled and finally killed by 

 large black ants. Further, our lawns and fields are sometimes dis- 

 figured by large mounds made by one or more species, and even the 

 small red ant may be a serious nuisance, though in a lesser degree 

 than the first named, when its nests get exceedingly numerous in 

 grass or in the flov/er bed. 



