74 ANTS AND CHILDREN OF THE GARDEN 



ALBERT. That ant searches through the house for 

 sweet stuff, eats young chicks, gives tender care to aphids 

 and scale insects, ravages orange trees, corn, sugar cane, 

 cotton, and so far man is almost helpless against this pest, 

 the newspapers say. 



KENNETH. Speaking of bridges, I placed three oat 

 straws end to end and made a bridge six feet long. It 

 reached out six feet from a nest of little red ants over 

 some tangled weeds and grass. I wish you could have seen 

 the ants skipping along my bridge of smooth shiny straws 

 from end to end. 



FLORENCE. Are there more ants than any other insect? 



CECIL. There are more kinds of butterflies and more 

 kinds of beetles in the world than kinds of ants, but there 

 are more individual ants than any other insect. 



DOROTHY. You say 5,000 kinds of ants have been 

 named. Of these, how many live in California? 



ANT. About forty-six. The Carpenter is the biggest 

 ant in the state, and there are five kinds in California. 



Population, Residence, How Long Ants Use the Same House. 



CECIL. Is the population of the ant world increasing? 



ANT. Some kinds of ants are increasing, others decreas- 

 ing. You know of ants that thrive in the presence of man 

 move when he does and return when he does follow 

 him like the dog and dandelion. Some of the best kinds 

 are already gone and others are going on account of man's 

 ax and plow. 



DOROTHY. Where all do ants live? 



ALBERT. Let me read what the book says: "Ants live 

 from the seashore to the timberline on the mountains, and 

 from the dryest desert to the dampest forest. They build 



