14 



The Florists^ Review 



August 14, 1919. 



GET AFTER THE ANTS 



nTtitTTtitTTtirniiTTTtiTTTritTTtirAiirrfiirniirniir^^ 



OOMBATING THE WHITE ANT. 



How Damage Is Done. 



The serious damage which white ants, 

 or termites, cause to growing plants, as 

 well as to foundation timbers and the 

 woodwork of buildings, can be pre- 

 vented. Injury to trees and shrubs, 

 growing crops or other vegetation is 

 only occasional and local and usually 

 occurs because of the presence of de- 

 caying wood. 



"White ants" are not- true ants, al- 

 though they are superficially antlike and 

 live in colonies made up of different 

 forms or castes, and are social insects. 

 In these'nests, or colonies, both wing- 

 less and winged mature individuals are 

 produced. The grayish-white, soft- 

 bodied, wingless "workers" are the de- 

 structive form. These workers make 

 the excavations and enlarge and extend 

 the colony as this becomes necessary, 

 ^hey live underground, shun the light 

 and are, therefore, rarely seen. 



White ants are essentially wood de- 

 stroyers and live in nests in the wood of 

 dead trees, decaying logs, or stumps in 

 the forest; in the foundation timbers of 

 buildings, fences, or other structures of 

 wood in contact with the ground; or in 

 a labyrinth of underground passages in 

 the earth, usually underneath wood or 

 other vegetation. An average colony 

 contains several thousand individuals. 



The ants live in wood which is in con- 

 tact with, or can be reached from, the 

 ground. The workers are able to travel 

 comparatively long distances through 

 subterranean galleries in search of wood 

 and in extending their colonies, and 

 usually gain entrance to buildings from 

 colonies outdoors. Infestation of the 

 interior woodwork is effected from un- 

 derground tunnels to and up through 

 moist or decayed foundation timbers. 

 Any wood construction in contact with 

 the ground is especially liable to attack 

 by white ants. 



Injury to Nursery Stock. 



Termites occasionally injure living 

 trees and shrubs. In Florida they have 

 caused considerable damage to newly 

 planted groves of orange trees, having 

 eaten away the bark about the collar 

 and root and completely girdled the 

 trees. Similar damage by white ants 

 has been done to other fruit trees, 

 such as apple, peach, pear, cherry, plum, 

 apricot and lemon, especially in the 

 southern states and in California; and 

 also to pecan, chestnut and walnut 

 trees. Such damage is more common in 

 the new soil of recently cleared wood- 

 land containing old decaying stumps or 

 much humus. ) 



In cities and elsewhere, a great va- 

 riety of shade trees are injured by 

 white ants, the insects infesting the 

 roots and the heartwood at the base of 

 injured trees. Sometimes the infested 

 trees are plastered with earthlike tubes 

 or galleries. 



There are numerous records of termite 

 injury to young fruit and nut tree seed- 

 lings in nurseries, to other nursery 

 stock, and to young trees planted in 

 recently cleared ground or soil rich in 



humus. The injury, however, has been 

 only occasional and not extensive. The 

 stock is usually attacked at a scar, 

 where the roots have been injured or 

 cut off, or at a graft, as cleft-graft 

 apple stock. 



How Plants Are Attacked. 



White ants injure a variety of shrubs 

 and flowers in gardens and greenhouses. 

 Heavily manured flower beds are a 

 source of infestation to the stems of 

 flowers as well as to the woodwork of 

 houses. In greenhouses old label sticks, 

 the wooden uprights supporting wooden 

 benches set on or in the ground, and 

 the wooden bench bottoms and plant 

 pots are often attacked by white ants, 

 and this leads to subsequent attack of 

 the growiog plants. 



In the greenhouse insect investiga- 

 tions of the Bureau of Entomology, 

 carried on at Washington, D. C, rec- 

 ords have been made of serious injury 

 to many plants grown under glass. 

 Heliotropes, begonias, bedding gerani- 

 ums, carnations, chrysanthemums and 

 roses have been found to be seriously 

 injured by white ants. One hundred 

 and eighty out of 1,000 heliotrope plants 

 were killed the first week after being 

 potted from the seeding pans. As many 

 as seventy-five white ants have been 

 found in a 4-inch pot of heliotrope. 



The insects come up through the ground 

 and form dirt galleries over the sup- 

 ports, or burrow up through the woodea 

 bench legs and run galleries the fu!l 

 length of the wooden benches. They 

 enter the soil through the drainaga 

 holes of the pots and eat out the maia 

 stalk of the root, killing the plant 

 quickly. 



Prevention of the Damage. 



Since white ants are difficult to elim- 

 inate from the woodwork of a building 

 when once they are established, every 

 precaution should be taken to prevent 

 their gaining an entrance. 



In order to prevent the insects from 

 reaching the woodwork of buildings 

 from their nests in the ground, the 

 foundations should, where possible, be 

 entirely of stone, brick or concrete. 

 Where stone or concrete foundations are 

 impracticable, timber impregnated with 

 coal-tar creosote should be used. Un- 

 treated beams should not be laid on the 

 earth or imbedded in moist concrete, 

 since they will rot, even if they do not 

 become infested. Complete dryness of 

 foundation timbers is an important 

 means of rendering buildings safe from 

 attack by white ants. 



In the construction of greenhouses, 

 iron frames and concrete work sho_uld 

 be used in place of woodwork wherever 

 possible, as this woodwork is often 

 seriously injured by termites, owing to 

 the warm, moist atmosphere maintained 

 throughout the year. The wooden up- 

 rights supporting the wooden plant 

 benches should never be set on or in 

 the ground, but should rest on stone, 



[Continued on page 73.] 



yiiMiM^yjjjy^ MiMi^iiy^iL!JiMiiy^ii^iiL^|ty^Mit^ ^ 



CLUB DOINGS 



r(ffif^ffif^.ff ^!tf rt'rr?f??Si:iyr!ii7Tti??^ 



WASHINGTON'S FLOWER WEEK. 



At a recent meeting of the Florists' 

 Club of Washington the question of hav- 

 ing a public flower show this fall was 

 brought up. Discussion of the subject 

 finally brought us around to the ques- 

 tion: Why cannot we, in the florists' 

 trade, do what the automobile dealers 

 did for themselves with the Automotive 

 week last spring? Automotive week was 

 held in Washington and, I understand, 

 in a number of other cities. During the 

 period all one could see in the papers, 

 practically, was automobile matter. The 

 stores were all decorated; some of them 

 gave out souvenirs and they certainly 

 made a big splurge. 



The club decided to have a "Say It 

 with Flowers" week in Washington 

 October 5 to 11. Every store is to be 

 dressed up specially for the occasion. 

 Myriads of flowers are to be shown. To 

 set an example of "Say It with Flow- 

 ers," we propose to give thousands of 

 blooms to hospitals and for similar pur- 

 poses. In fact, we propose to have every 

 florist in town push, advertise, talk and 

 do everything except eat flowers during 

 all that week. 



We believe that we can not only in- 

 crease the demand for our product, but 

 that we can go into new homes and 

 create a demand where there has been 

 none heretofore. We think that this is 

 a capital idea and a big one. We offer 



the suggestion that the different cities 

 throughout the country take up this idea 

 and make our "Say It with Flowers" 

 week general among the cities through- 

 out the country. 



Accordingly we herewith enter Wash- 

 ington, D. C., as Number 1 in the "Say 

 It with Flowers" week for the autumn 

 of 1919. Z. D. Blackistone, Pres., 



Florists' Club of Washington. 



CLEVELANDERS FOR BROWN. 



At its meeting August 4, the Cleve- 

 land Florists' Club placed on record its 

 unanimous endorsement of F. C. W. 

 Brown, of the J. M. Gasser Co., for the 

 office of vice-president of the S. A. F. 

 for the year 1920. This action was 

 taken because the annual convention of 

 the national society will be held in the 

 Sixth City next year and it might well 

 be considered as the initial step in the 

 direction of making the Cleveland meet- 

 ing an epoch-making event in the prog- 

 ress of the organized trade. The local 

 florists appear to appreciate the impor- 

 tance of details and evidently believe in 

 starting at the beginning. 



It has long been the custom of the 

 S. A. F. to select a vice-president from 

 among its members in the city of the 

 next convention, the wisdom of which is 

 obvious. The Cleveland club, desirous 

 of having its most influential member 

 and most indefatigable worker selected 



