

46 



RED ANTS. 



them. Great numbers were destroyed ; and the 

 cottage and its neighbourhood enjoyed for a 

 short time some respite, but another horde from 

 a different quarter discovered that the place wa? 

 untenanted, and we were again persecuted. 



There is another method of destroying the 

 ants, which has only of late years been intro- 

 duced ; but this is more particularly adapted to 

 their destruction when they are undermining a 

 building. A mixture of brimstone, and of any 

 other substances which create a considerable 

 degree of smoke, is burnt at the entrance of 

 the ant-hill, a hole being in the first place dug 

 around it, that the combustible matter may be 

 laid rather lower than the surface of the ground 

 immediately surrounding. Then a large pair 

 of bellows is made use of to blow the smoke 

 down the aperture ; now it is necessary to ob- 

 serve, that all the crevices by which the smoke 

 is again ejected, should be stopped up. If the 

 operation is conducted with due attention it 

 has been found successful. It is likewise a 

 means of discovering the several communica- 

 tions of the same ant-hill, and thus being able 

 with less uncertainty to judge of the situation 

 of the chief pot (panella) or nest. 



The red ant is particularly destructive to the 

 mandioc plant, and in many parts it is almost 

 impossible to preserve the plantations of it from 



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