INSECTS OF THE HOUSEHOLD 



59 



large black ants are simply visitors from outside that enter oc- 

 casionally in search of food. The little red ant (Fig. 35, C), 

 however, lives in large nests or colonies in the walls or under the 

 floors. If the nests can be found, they should be destroyed, 

 otherwise the ants must be trapped with pieces of meat or with 

 sponges containing sweetened water; the latter can be dropped 

 into boiling water and then " set " again. Recently an interest- 

 ing method has been used in California to destroy the Argentine 



FIG. 36. Insects of the household. 



A, cheese skipper ; B, meal worm ; C, beetle into which meal worm develops. 

 (After Chittenden.) 



ant. Pans of slow-acting poison were set out. The ants not 

 only fed on this themselves, but carried it to their young, and, 

 as a result, entire colonies were exterminated. 



Cheese Skipper. Articles of food are also rendered unfit 

 to eat by insects which burrow into them. The cheese skipper 

 (Fig. 36, A) breeds in soft cheese and the fatty parts of hams 

 and bacon. The adults are minute, grayish flies, and the larvae 

 are maggots. Thorough cleaning, followed by fumigation, will 

 destroy these insects. 



