ENTOMOLOGY 333 



in thin syrup or sugar water and squeezed nearly dry. Set it on 

 a plate turned upside down where the ants are most abundant, and 

 it will soon become filled with insects. Then prepare the second 

 sponge in the same way and substitute it for the first, which should 

 be removed and at once dropped into boiling water. Wash number 

 one thoroughly so as to get rid of all the dead ants, and it will then 

 be ready to replace number two, -when that in turn is filled with the 

 insects. If there are only a few colonies close together, a very few 

 days will answer to destroy them. If there are many, and they are 

 situated in different parts of the room or house, a longer time will 

 be required. It is not probable that the colonies are really destroyed ; 

 but it seems rather as if the ants, frightened by the inexplicable dis- 

 appearance of so many of their fellow-workers, simply abandon the 

 place. In some instances, of course, where the females are destroyed 

 with the workers, the colonies thus left headless simply disperse and 

 the remaining worker perish. 



Not strictly pertinent, perhaps, to the title, is the subject of 

 ants in lawns and in roads or pavements. The small mound builders 

 in brick walls or between flaggings can usually be reached by pour- 

 ing kerosene or gasoline into the openings of the little hillocks. The 

 large ants that sometimes make considerable nests in lawns, may be 

 reached with bisulphide of carbon. Punch three or four holes, five 

 or six inches deep, with a thick cane into as many parts of the nest, 

 pour two ounces of bisulphide into each and close the opening 

 with the foot. The fumes of the bisulphide follow the galleries and 

 kill off larvae and pupae as well as adults. A very large nest may re- 

 quire more material then recommended, and as the grade of bisul- 

 phide that may be used for this purpose is not expensive, a liberal 

 application will do no harm. The bisulphide acts better when the 

 ground is somewhat damp than when it is very dry; but it should 

 not be water-logged, as after a heavy rain. 



Carpet Beetles. Two species of what are known as carpet beetles 

 occasionally become troublesome and the most common of these is 

 the parent of the so-called buffalo moth. The term moth is utterly 

 inappropriate in connection with this insect and was derived from 

 the habit of the larva, which eats woolens somewhat like the larva 

 of a clothes moth, while the term Buffalo is due to a fanciful resem- 

 blance of the anterior tuftings of the larva to the name of the buffalo. 



The beetles are broadly oval, a full eighth of an inch in length, 

 mottled with bars of white scales on a black ground, and with a 

 line or streak of red scales down the middle of the back. They 

 winter normally under the bark of trees and in similar outdoor 

 shelters, but may on rare occasions be found moving about actively 

 indoors during that season. In the spring the insects frequent the 

 earliest flowers and may then make their way indoors to lay their 

 eggs. 



The larva is a stout though active grub about one-quarter of an 

 inch long, covered with stiff flattened hair of a brown color, form- 

 ing tufts at the sides and longer ones at each end. It feeds on woolens 

 of all kind, but prefers carpets or fabrics laid on shelves, so it can get 



