26 BULLETIN 333, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



ORNAMENTAL PLANTS. 



F. C. Pratt states that at Sabinal, Tex., on July 11, 1910, some 

 small pieces of Opuntia infested with Mimorista larvae were entirely 

 covered with soil galleries by termites. Many insects were found. 

 It was also noticed that the galleries were extended to the healthy 

 plants. Most of the small pieces were shriveled, but this condition 

 was primarily due to the termite attack. This injury to ornamental 

 cacti has occurred many times before. 



On August 24, 1915, at Jacumba, Cal., F. P. Keen found workers 

 and soldiers of Hamitermes sp. feeding on the surface of the rind of' 

 Yucca, where protected by the leaf bases, which are closely appressed 

 to the stalk. The insects worked between the rosette of leaves and 

 the flower stem. Jacumba is near the International Boundary Line 

 and in a desert region. 



At Washington, D. C, termites (L. flavipes) constructed earthlike 

 tunnels around a wooden fern box in a window of a school building 

 in October, 1915. When the insects came to a hole in one corner 

 of the box — bored to allow the excess water to drip away — they 

 suspended hanging tubes down through this hole. These were about 

 3 inches in length and \\ inches in width at the bottom — the widest 

 point. The opening at the bottom, through which the antennae of 

 the workers and soldiers could be seen projecting, was about \ inch 

 in diameter. The shape of these tubes was somewhat like a funnel 

 but the flare was not quite so marked. Termites infest the roots and 

 stems of ornamental plants, in gardens or potted. 



E. S. Tucker states that on July 30, 1909, at Dallas, Tex., termites 1 

 occupied the hollow roots of a weed, Leptilon canadense. The insects 

 had effected entrance through a hole in the root. On September 29, 

 1911, at Wellington, Kans., according to E. O. G. Kelly, termites 

 had attacked stems of cocklebur, utilizing the entrance hole made 

 by Papaipema nitela Hbn. At Colorado Springs, Colo., on March 7, 

 1915, at an elevation of 6,100 feet, live termites 1 were noted by 

 G. Hofer in the dead stem of the common thistle. 



PREVENTIVE AND REMEDIAL MEASURES. 



PREVENTIVES. 



PROTECTION OF WOODWORK IN BUILDINGS. 



The fact that the beams, as "joists," "studding," "stringers," 

 etc.. of the basement are embedded in concrete is only a partial 

 protection. In the settling of the house concrete is almost sure 



1 Leucotermes sp. 



