332 INSECTS AFFECTING VEGETATION 



tels, under hearthstones and, in fact, wherever there are cavities with 

 external openings. As the insects are so small the narrowest crack 

 or opening will serve, and their nests are, as a rule, beyond reach. 

 The other species may nest indoors or may have an outside nest, 

 simply foraging indoors. In the latter case, when the outdoor nest 

 can be located, it can sometimes be easily destroyed and the whole 

 trouble eliminated. 



Ants live together in large colonies in which most of the indi- 

 viduals are workers or wingless, dwarfed females, unable to repro- 

 duce their kind. The perfect or reproductive females are more than 

 twice the size of the workers, usually darker in color, with a much 

 larger, heavy abdomen. They lay all the eggs that provide for the 

 increase of the colony and are not usually seen running about with 

 the workers. In the early summer winged males and females are 

 produced, which leave the nest for a marriage flight. The males die, 

 the fertilized females strip off their wings, which are of no further 

 use to them, and seek a convenient shelter to start a colony. The 

 eggs are minute, whitish ovals, which hatch into helpless grubs that 

 must be tended and fed by the mother when the colony is newly 

 started, and afterward by the workers in older establishments. Dur- 

 ing the winter the ants are usually dormant except in thoroughly 

 warmed houses, and even here none of those having outside nests 

 will be found. 



Ants dislike the odor of carbolic acid and of naphthaline, and 

 they can usually be kept away from substances that it is desirable to 

 protect in infested localities. Injecting dilute carbolic acid into 

 crevices from which they are seen to issue has a tendency to drive 

 them away, and gasoline may be used to the same end. If the nest 

 can be located and gotten at, the whole colony may be destroyed 

 with boiling water, gasoline or even kerosene. If not, it means a 

 long and persistent campaign upon the colony with baits. 



It often happens in moving into strange houses one finds ants 

 have established themselves. In all cases the pests may be gotten 

 rid of by setting out some specially attractive food near their runs 

 and destroying it when fully covered with the insects. A piece of 

 raw bone with little adhering scraps of meat and blood will become 

 covered in an hour or two, and when so covered it may be dumped 

 into the stove. Even the brown paper in which the meat is sent from 

 the butcher may be set out, baited with a little meat scraping and 

 crushed into a loose wad. In all cases the whole thing should be 

 lifted without disturbance and dumped into the fire without giving 

 any individual a chance to escape to the nest. This kind of bait 

 even attracts the females and a steady campaign for a few days causes 

 a frightful destruction in the colonies. It is usually a matter of two 

 or three weeks before there will be a sudden and complete absence of 

 specimens at the baits, and then for months not an ant will be seen. 

 This sort of campaign has been advised many times and in almost 

 every case success has resulted. 



Instead of the raw meat bait, sugar sponges will answer. Two 

 medium sized sponges should be provided, and one of them dipped 



