260 THE CHIEF SOUTHERN AGRICULTURAL CROPS 



columns to great distances in search of foliage that 

 is just to their liking. This they do not eat, but 

 they cut it up in small pieces and pack it away in 

 their underground chambers, where it becomes cov- 

 ered with a peculiar fungous growth on which the ants 

 feed. It is necessary to search for and destroy all 

 these nests in the neighborhood of orange orchards. 

 This is usually done either by pumping in sulphur 

 fumes or by the use of carbon disulphide. Killing 

 " bibijaguas," however, requires constant attention, 

 since the queens swarm at intervals and scatter out 

 in order to establish new nests. Trees may be tem- 

 porarily protected from leaf-cutting ants by tying 

 a bit of loose cotton around the trunk or by paint- 

 ing on a ring of the sticky material known to the 

 trade as "tree tanglefoot." This is the same ma- 

 terial used in making sticky fly paper. It will 

 remain soft enough to prevent the ants from cross- 

 ing for a number of days. 



Another much smaller ant QSolenopsis)^ known 

 locally as " hormega brava " on account of its vicious 

 sting, does considerable damage in Port Rico and 

 some parts of Cuba by eating holes in the bark of 

 young trees in order to induce a flow of gum. They 

 also bite and destroy the very young twigs. These 

 ants make large shallow nests near the surface of the 

 ground, and great numbers of them can be destroyed 

 by opening these nests with the hoe and sprinkling 

 them with kerosene or rosin-lime mixture. A ten 

 per cent solution of creolin is also useful. 



Pomelos (^Citrus deeumana). — The pomelo, or 

 grape fruit, is very closely related to the orange, not 



