496 THE HANDBOOK FOR PRACTICAL FARMERS 



species nesting in the woodwork, masonry, or articles of furni- 

 ture, etc., are often very difficult to eradicate because of their 

 inaccessibility. If the nest can be located by following the work- 

 ers back to their point of disappearance, the inmates of the nest, 

 if near by, may sometimes be reached by injecting a little disul- 

 phid of carbon, kerosene, or gasoline into the opening by means 

 of an oil can or small syringe. In the use of these substances, 

 naturally, precautions should be taken to see that no tire is pres- 

 ent, as all of them are inflaimnable. If the nest is under flooring 

 it may sometimes be gotten at by removing a section ; but, as a 

 rule, unless the colony can thus be reached and destroyed, other 

 measures are of only temporary avail if food or other conditions 

 continue to attract the ants and facilitate their continued breed- 

 ing in the houses. 



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 

 substances, 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 con- 

 tainers or in ice boxes, and limiting the amount of such articles 

 as far as possible to daily needs. 



It has been asserted that it is possible to drive ants away from 

 household supplies by the use of repellants, particularly cam- 

 phor and napththalene flakes or powdered moth balls. The use 

 of most of such repellant substances, however, in connection with 

 food supplies, is impractical, and careful tests have indicated 

 that such substances have only slightly repellant properties and 

 bring comparatively little benefit. 



The collection of ants by the use of attractive baits is fre- 

 quently recommended. Perhaps as convenient a bait as any 

 consists of small sponges moistened with sweetened water and 

 placed in situations where they can be easily reached by the ants. 

 These sponges may be collected several times daily and the ants 

 swarming on them destroyed by immersion in hot water. It is 

 reported also that a syrup made by dissolving borax and sugar 

 in boiling water and distributed on sponges will effect the de- 

 struction of the ants in numbers. Remedies of this kind, how- 

 ever, are of doubtful value. They may be useful at the outset 

 when the colonies are few and small and when most of the indi- 

 viduals may, by these means, be secured and destroyed. Very 

 frequently, however, the distribution of such baits will simply 



