107 



caring for the larvre and startiug out from dawn till dawn on foraging 

 expeditions in long single files like Indians on the war-path. 



Fig. 18.— Moxomorium pharaonis : a, female ; b, worker enlarged. (After Riley.) 



I have shown at figure IS the female and worker greatly enlarged, 

 and there is nothing in their structure to which I need call especial at- 

 tention. Nor need I speak further of the habits of the species, and the 

 matter of remedies is soon disposed of. Our first recommendation is to 

 find the point from which they all come. They may have built the 

 nest in some accessible spot, in which case a little kerosene will end a 

 large part if not all of the trouble. If the nest is in the wall or under 

 the floor and taking up a board will not bring it within reach, find the 

 nearest accessible point and devote your energies to killing the ants oft 

 as they appear. Where the nests are outside nothing is easier than to 

 find them and to destry the inhabitants with kerosene or bisulphide of 

 carbon. The nests are almost always in the immediate vicinity of the 

 house. The ants are peculiarly susceptible to the action of pyrethrum 

 in any form, be it Persiau or Dalmatian powder or buhach, and a free 

 and persistent use of this powder will accomplish much. 



A great number of remedies have been proposed in the household 

 columns of various journals, but nearly all depend upon the use of a 

 mixture of some sort for trapping the ants, and at the best are slow and 

 tedious means of warfare. The best of these with which I have had 

 any experience consists in placing small bits of sponge moistened with 

 sweetened water in the spots where the ants most do congregate, col- 

 lecting the sponges once a day or so, soaking them in hot water and 

 then replacing them. Small bits of bread and poisoned molasses or 

 small vessels of lard in which a few drops of oxalic acid have been put 

 have also been recommended, as well as the free use of borax, so often 

 advised for roaches. The people of the Southern States suffer more 

 from these pests than we do at the North, and a Floridian of experience 

 (Mr. C. G. Cone, of Crescent City) recommends a mixture of borax and 

 sugar, well mixed with boiling water, and left here and there on bits of 

 broken crockery. If any one tries this I should be glad to learn the re- 

 sult. 



