Household fest* and Their Treatment 88 



a foothold. It is a very active insect both ou its feet and bj 

 the use of its wings, and being largely nocturnal in habit often 

 does its mischief without being recognized as the culprit. The 

 species is much like a smaller roach (P. australasiae) said to 

 be common and troublesome in the more southern states. The 

 latter has not been observed by me in Kentucky, but probably 

 occurs here locally at times, since it has been observed in ad 

 joining states. It measures* about 1.35 inches in length to the 

 tips of folded wings, being thus about the size of small P 

 americana, and may be recognized by a bright yellow mark 

 along the shoulder of each front wing. The yellow marginal 

 band of the prothorax also is more sharply defined and COD 

 spicumis than in the closely related American insect 



WHITE ANTS. 



The common name of these insects leads us to expect them 

 to be somewhat like ordinary ants in character and habits 

 They are in fact only like ants in general appearance, and be 

 long to an entirely different insect order. They are generally 

 brought to our notice during their annual swarming flights, 

 when great numbers of the gauzy-winged males and females 

 emerge from retreats in timbers of buildings and scatter to 

 mate and establish new colonies. At such times the householder 

 is surprised by a horde of them coming from the base of a 

 porch column, a sill lying close to the ground, or- a wooden 

 basement floor. They live ordinarily in burrows made in the 

 interior of such wood and in the soil, and their-mischief is thus 

 accomplished before their presence is suspected. From infested 

 woodwork they may invade other objects lying near, such as 

 books and fabrics left in little used basement rooms, and have 

 sometimes been the cause of severe loss in this way. Several 

 years ago a package of printed reports of this Station was in 

 vaded in a basement room, the ants coining up to a set of 

 shelves from a floor just beneath. Extensive galleries were cut 

 in the leaves, the worst infested being completely ruined. In 

 other cases observed by me posts of verandas were mined TAB 

 npppssarv t.hpir removal 



