"NUMBER 30" 



229 



destroyed by L. niger only a few days before, I saw 

 that the ants must be got rid of at once if this nest 

 was to be saved. Accordingly I killed eight ants 

 crawling on the nest material, then caught the queen 

 in a glass jar, and lifted out the nest. There was 

 only one ant in it, but I killed nine more in the 

 cavity and tunnel and around the mouth of the 

 latter. Then with my trowel I shaved off the surface 

 of the ground it was grassy over an area extend- 

 ing to about a foot around the mouth of the tunnel 



Fig. 32. 



and cover, and with my pocket-knife made a little 

 trench about an inch wide and an inch deep sur- 

 rounding these, and nowhere approaching nearer to 

 them than three inches. Into this trench I poured 

 a mixture of turpentine and paraffin oil, the scent of 

 which is distasteful to ants. 



After having made sure no ants remained inside 

 the area enclosed by the trench, I put back the nest, 

 placing it, without any superfluous nest material, on 

 a disc of sacking which covered the disc of tin. 

 Then I let the queen run in. She was very pleased 

 to get back to her brood (the first larvae had spun 

 their cocoons), and to find her honey-pot again full. 

 June 30, 7 a.m. No ants in the nest or within 



