2 
NEW BOOKS, 
Bary, L. H. The standard cyclopedia of horticulture. v.3 F-K. New York, 1915. 
Bruges, ©. T., and MeLranpEr, A. L. Key to the families of North American insects. An introduction to the classifi- 
cation of insects. Boston and Pullman, 1915. 140 p. 
issie, E. O. Injurious and beneficial insects of California. (Second edition.) Sacramento, May, 1915. 541 p. 
illus. (Supplement to the Monthly bulletin of the California State Commission of Horticulture.) 
Keioce, V. L., and Doane, R. W. Elementary textbook of economic zoology and entomology. New York, 1915. 
532 p. _ - 
Krrsy, W. F. Orthoptera (Acridiidae), London, 1914. 276 p. (The fauna of British India, including Ceylon and 
Burma.) 
Onrarto EnromouoaicaL Socrery. Forty-fifth annual report, for 1914. Toronto, 1915. 152 p. 
Srvciarr, JAMES. The entomological and ornithological collector’s handbook. Los Angeles. [1915] 80 p. 
Sinciair, JAMES. Illustrated descriptive entomological collector's handbook and price list. Los Angeles. [1915] 
46 p. 
LAWN OR GARDEN ANTS. 
There seems to be a rather exceptional abundance of the common little lawn ant, probably 
what is often called the garden ant (Lasius niger), this year. These little ants, yellowish 
brown in color, construct their small crater nests on lawns and pastures in enormous numbers, 
often a dozen or more to the square yard of surface. It is quite probable that these ants do 
not harm the grass of lawns and meadows, but on the contrary may be distinctly beneficial in 
their action, bringing up from the lower surfaces sand and earth to form a constant top dressing 
or soil mulch and at the same time permitting of better aeration of the earth, and in both 
these ways increasing fertility. It is the rare exception, if ever, that any of these ants enter 
houses in quest of food, and at least their stay is temporary. Their chief injurious réle is in 
harboring plant lice over winter in their nests. Naturally they give a rather unsightly 
appearance to house lawns, and the little craters of sand are objectionable on putting greens, 
oot links, and tennis courts, and also on pavements where they work between the crevices of 
the paving stones or bricks. On these accounts it may occasionally be necessary to recom- 
mend methods of control and destruction. 
The object of this note, however, is to ask the members of this bureau to make such 
studies and observations as they can during this summer to determine the abundance and 
possible damage or benefit from these ants, and to examine the nests to determine the nature 
of the underground channels and the food habits of the different species concerned. At the 
same time it would be very desirable to have collections made of the ants from nests, getting 
the queens if possible, as well as the workers, and sending such collections to this office for 
identification. Such records will give us a means of determining the distribution of the different 
species of common lawn and meadow ants, and a better knowledge of their economic 
importance. [C. L. M.] 
SANE REMEDIES. 
Next to preventing the loss from insects themselves, probably one of the greatest fields of 
usefulness for the economic entomologist now, and in the near future, is the preventing of waste 
and loss from the extravagant and unwise use of sprays and fumigants and other applications 
to control insect pests. The writer has, within the last two or three years, witnessed indis- 
criminate spraying of all the trees in Central Park, New York, by men who did not know what 
they were working against, spraying all trees alike, whether infested or not. The same exhi- 
bition has been made in the parks of Washington. Vast quantities of sprays have been put 
on trees in parks and along sidewalks in this city during the past spring, regardless of whether 
the trees needed any treatment or not. Similarly, every tree in many of the parks of this city 
has been banded for the last several years with a proprietary insect lime, wie has been of 
little or no value to the trees as a means of protection and, it now develops, is doing them 
harm. This application forms an impervious coating which retains the moisture underneath 
and slowly rots the bark and creates a belt beneath which insects congregate both for hiberna- 
tion and as a means of entrance into the rotting bark. The actual result, therefore, is diamet- 
rically opposed to the object aimed at and, from present appearances, if kept up would prob- 
ably cause very great damage to, if not the loss of, the trees. Spraying with arsenicals should 
be done only when fully warranted and particularly for the reason that it puts an additional 
burden on the vitality of the plant and, even when no immediate injury is seen, some damage 
probably results, as illustrated by the fact that as a rule sprayed trees will ripen and drop 
their foliage considerably earlier in the autumn than unsprayed trees. 
