386 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL, 



June 22, 1899. 



Ants— An Interesting' Nuisance- 

 of Them. 



-How to Get Rid 



BY PROF. A. J. COOK. 



I AM requested by a subscriber to the American Bee Jour- 

 nal to write an article on these little insects, which have 

 been famous in prose and poetry all down the ag^es. It 

 is not strang-e that the bee-keeper should wish to know more 

 of the ants. Nest to bees — and perhaps we do not need to 

 make this exception — the ant certainly stands at the head 

 of the insect world, as does man at the head of the Verte- 

 brate branch. 



Again, ants are quite like bees in the economy of their 

 society. The bee-keeper is also interested in the fact that 

 the ant is quick to discover honey-dew, and such insects as 

 secrete it. The ant also becomes sometimes the enemy of 

 the bee-keeper in that it enters the hive and causes no little 

 disturbance. It is even reported that the ants sometimes 

 destroy the queen-bee, tho I have never had satisfactory 

 proof that such is positivel)- true. While it may happen, I 

 doubt if it is ever a common enough occurrence to cause 

 alarm or even disturbance. 



The ant, like the bees, many of the wasps and the white 

 ants, which belong to a different order of insects, are truly 

 social. They live in large colonies and work together, each 

 for the good of all. The3- live for the most part in the 

 ground, tho some of the boring ants live in the holes which 

 they bore in trees. Sometimes they fairly tunnel the trees, 

 cutting them so extensively that they are honey-combed. I 

 have never seen trees bored by any insects more thoroly 

 than by ants. Even the white ants of tropical regions do 

 not their work more perfectly than do some of the true ants 

 which we are now considering. In every formicary, which 

 name is used to designate a colony, there may be found not 

 only the queen, male and worker, but also soldier ants, 

 which are the protectors of the colony. 



The ant belongs to the family Formicidae, hence we un- 

 derstand why a colony is called a formicary. In the winter 

 only worker ants, queens and soldiers are found in the nest. 

 As with bees, when spring comes drones and young queens 

 are reared. These, unlike the workers and soldiers have 

 wings, and in spring or early summer fly forth, often in 

 great numbers, to mate. The drones, or males, die at once 

 after mating, as do the drone-bees, but the queen is taken 

 possession of by workers, read)' to emigrate from the old 

 home and form a new one, is conducted into some subter- 

 ranean retreat, and thus a new colony is formed. The first 

 thing the workers do is to bite the queen ant's wings off. so 

 she must perforce stay at home. We see then that the bee- 

 keeper has a precedent set him by the ants in favor of clip- 

 ping the queen's wing. 



The food of ants is both insectivorous and vegetable. 

 We often see them carrying insects to their nests, and as 

 every one knows, .seeds form quite a prominent part of their 

 diet. Indeed, the agricultural ant of Texas, clears the 

 ground, sows the seed, and raises its own grain. These 

 ants also mound about the entrance to their tunnels on 

 low ground, to keep out the water. In case water enters 

 ' and their stores of grain are wet they carry it out to dry 

 that it may not injure by fermentation. Thus we see that 

 the ant even seems ahead of bees in its functional develop- 

 ment. 



Ants also make slaves of other ants, and some have 

 carried this on so long and so generally that they have lost 

 the power to care for themselves, except as they secure 

 these slaves. Some ants bridge or tunnel streams, and it is 

 authentically reported that in India, where some leaf-eating 

 ants do great damage, they practice division of labor. They 

 work by night, and some ants go up the trees, cut off the 

 leaves, while other ants carry these latter to the nests. 



In Colorado there is a strange development of some of 

 the ants into storehouse forms. Each ant is little more 

 than stomach and legs, and always attaches to the rock in 

 its cave home, where it receives honey-dew brought in by 

 the other ants, and so is a sort of honey-comb for storing 

 this nectar. As the other ants want this honey they receive 

 it from the storehouse ants, much as we see bees yielding 



up honey toothers of the colony. The Indians use these for 

 desert, manipulating the ants much as we do grapes, as we 

 use them for like purpose. 



I stated before that ants often show us the presence of 

 honey-dew, and so of plant or scale lice which produce it. 

 Indeed, it is rare to see ants going up or down trees, bushes 

 or other plants, where, upon examination, we will not tind 

 plant-lice or scale insects if we carefully look for them. It 

 is probable that the insects secrete the hone_v-dew to attract 

 the ants, bees and wasps, and thus protect the honey-dew- 

 secreting insects from birds. The birds will not come near 

 the plant-lice or scale insects when guarded by these bees, 

 wasps, etc. The ants have learned so well the good office 

 of plant-lice that they frequently keep the plant-lice in their 

 homes, feeding and caring for them that they maj- receive 

 this nectar which the plant-lice secrete. When disturbed, 

 the ants will frequently carry out the plant-lice before they 

 do their own brood. 



I have stated above that the ants frequentlj- enter the 

 hives and greatly annoy the bees. Every bee-keeper has 

 had many cases of such interference. In some sections of 

 the country the hives are set high from the ground to pre- 

 vent this intrusion of the ants. I have had reports from the 

 Southern States that the ants occasionally destroy the queen- 

 bee, which, as suggested above, may occasionally be true, 

 but I think there may be some doubt about it. 



Ants are often a serious annoyance on our lawns, and 

 by getting into the house, where from their small size they 

 are able to seek out almost every article of food. It is not 

 difficult to prevent such intrusion. In case of disturbance 

 on our lawns, if we search out the anthills we may easily 

 destroy the ants by the use of bisulphide of carbon. By use 

 of crowbar or other rod (wood or iron) we make a hole into 

 the anthill, reaching to the bottom, which the softer 

 ground enables us easily to find or determine. We now 

 pour in a teacupful or so of bisulphide of carbon, cover 

 quickly with clay, and compact this so as to prevent the 

 poison from passing off. The liquid quickly vaporizes, and 

 being held in the nest destroys all the ants that are in the 

 tunnels. This should be done when the most of the ants 

 are in the nest. 



I have found the best substances to repel ants from the 

 house to be corrosive sublimate and buhach, or insect pow- 

 der. The corrosive sublimate may be brusht along the 

 floor where the ants enter, or strings may be dipt into it — 

 carpet-rags do well — and laid along where they will obstruct 

 the ants' path. The ants seem so averse to this substance 

 that they leave at once. Dusting with the buhach also 

 clears them out, but the treatment may have to be repeated 

 every week or two. We have been troubled not a little with 

 ants in California, but have found the above methods very 

 efficient in ridding our houses of this pest. 



Los Angeles Co., Calf. 



The Sting- of the Honey-Bee and Its Use. 



BY C. P. D.4.D.\NT. 



THE sting of the bee, as well as that of other hymenop- 

 tera, is practically a sharp double sword, well sheathed 

 when in the body, and protruding bej-ond that sheath 

 when in the act of stinging. Those two blades are barbed, 

 and when once driven into the wound — which is done 

 usually by an alternate motion of the two darts — are as 

 difficult to extract as a fish-hook would be. When the bee 

 stings, if it is left alone, and the sting has not been driven 

 too deep, she will extract it out of the wound by turning it 

 around and around, which probably twists the barbs and 

 presses them against the blade, allowing its withdrawal. 



The poison is a transparent liquid of great venomous 

 power — more deadly than that of the rattle-snake, for the 

 latter maj' be taken into the stomach with impunity, while 

 that of the bee would cause sickness. Reaumur and Delia 

 Rocca both report it as burning the tongue almost like 

 scalding water. A. I. Root compares its strength and taste 

 to a compound of cayenne pepper, onion juice and horse- 

 radish. So the only reason why the sting of the bee is not 

 more dangerous is that the quantity of venom ejected is so 

 very minute. In fact, the pain caused by the sting is 

 greater or less according to the quantity- of poison forced in. 

 Were it not for this poison, the wound made by the sting- 

 would hardly be perceived. It is therefore of great impor- 

 tance that tile sting of a bee be removed promptly, espe- 

 cially because it has a spasmodic action, even after it has 

 been separated from the body of the bee, which continues 

 forcing poison into the wound until it is nearU- all ex- 



