PR, Ic cS -_ eee — = 
The ant is now known to occur in the following localities outside of 
the city of New Orleans: Across the river in Algiers and adjoining 
small settlements; at West End, Spanish Fort, and Milneburg, sum- 
mer resorts on Lake Pontchartrain; Bay St. Louis, Miss., a summer 
resort between New Orleans and Mobile; along the Texas and Pacifie 
Railroad at Donaldsonville, Cheneyville, and Alexandria; along -the 
Southern Pacific at Thibodaux, Schriever, Houma, Berwick, Morgan 
City, Franklin, New Iberia, and Lafayette; and at Opelousas. 
It will be neticed that these points are all, excepting Opelousas and 
the three first-named summer resorts, on main lines of the railroads 
leading out of New Orleans. They doubtless occur at many other 
smaller places along these lines and in localities on other railroads 
leading into Mississippi, Alabama, and Louisiana. Their distribu- 
tion to summer resorts occurs through baggage and clothing as well as 
in supplies sent from New Orleans to these points. 
In the lower part of the city one woman told me that the ants 
appeared in her house late in June, 1904. Her baby was taken sick 
soon afterwards and they had a great deal of trouble keeping the ants 
away from him. The ants seemed especially attracted to the child, 
perhaps from some odor of the sick room, and would cross coal-oil 
bands on the bed and on chair legs in order to reach the baby. After 
the child’s death they were even more persistent in their efforts to 
reach him. The coffin was set on a stool the legs of which were placed 
in dishes of water with a coal-oil film. This would deter the ants for 
only a short time, when some would get on the oil and, others follow- 
ing, there would soon be a bridge of dead ants. 
Several instances were related where ants dropped from the ceiling 
in order to reach food or other substances they desired. An experi- 
ment was tried with some sugar sirups on a table which stood against 
the wall. The ants came up the wall to reach the table. When it was 
removed from the wall they came up the legs. Next morning the legs 
were wrapped with cloths soaked in coal oil and the table removed 
some distance from the wall. That day the ants were persistent in 
their efforts to reach the food, constantly chmbing up and down the 
legs, but only-a few attempted to cross the oiled bandages and these J" 
were not successful. The following morning the table was well covered 
with ants. They had gone up the wall over the first trail and passed 
on up to the ceiling, then over that diagonally until they were over the 
table, when they dropped down onto it. Very few ants were J" 
noticed returning from the ceiling, but a constant stream of them was 
going up. At the point where the table had formerly touched the wall 
quite a number of ants were clustered, evidently at a loss to know 
where to go. The ants, in leaving the table, usually went down one 
of the legs and were crossing the coal-oil bandages with apparently 
