HOUSEHOLD INSECTS 
13 
it or them upon shelves frequented by ants, and, when filled with ants, 
dropping them into boiling water, and repeating the process. 
Some ants in the house will eat the following poison mixture: Paris 
green and molasses or syrup — an abundance of Paris green. A saturated 
solution of alum, applied over shelves and allowed to dry, appears to leave 
a deposit which is obnoxious to ants, and they avoid it. One must bear in 
mind, however, that until the queen or queens are killed ants will continue 
to come. 
In the case of the very minute ant, which sometimes occurs, especially 
in the house, we have eradicated it from a private house, where it had a 
foothold for eight years, by fumigation and freezing. We first traced the 
ants to their nest in the walls of the furnace cellar, and tried injecting 
kerosene, gasoline, bisulphide of carbon into the crevices between the 
stones where the ants entered. This did not meet with perfect success, 
so in the middle of the winter, with the family out of the house, we fumi- 
gated with, the deadly gas known as hydrocyanic acid gas, and afterwards 
by opening all the windows, secured a temperature in the house something 
like 4° below zero for three or four days, and the ants have not appeared 
since, although three years have gone by since the treatment. This, as 
will be seen, is heroic treatment, but sometimes the exigencies of the case 
demand it. 
Where ants are coming from the outside, and are extremely trouble- 
some, they can be deterred from entering the house by applying with a 
brush a band of sticky tangle-foot, which can be purchased in cans, on 
the outside of the foundation of the house. As long as this is kept stick}^ 
no ant can get across it. 
The large mounds out of doors, each of which is occupied by hundreds 
of ants, can be easily treated with bisulphide of carbon. Make eight or 
ten holes with a cane or croquet stick, about eight inches deep, in each 
mound. Into each hole pour a good tablespoonful of bisulphide of carbon, 
closing each hole with earth, and then throw a couple of wet burlap 
sacks over the hill, leaving them over night. One might have to do this 
twice possibly; or, in other words, until the queen or queens are killed. 
The common little red' ant, which makes tiny hills on our walks and in 
the grass, can be destroyed by pouring a little gasoline into each hole, but 
this is an endless job where they are numerous, and is not worth while unless 
they are extremely troublesome. F. L. W. 
BEAN WEEVILS. 
Bean weevils live and breed in dried beans which are stored for winter 
use. The infested beans show round holes from which the beetles have 
emerged. On opening other infested beans grubs will be found at work 
inside. The beetles are quite small — about one-eighth of an inch long, 
mottled and brownish in color. Infestation is carried over from old beans 
left in the bins from last season’s crop; or eggs may be laid in the beans 
while still on the vines in the field — the beetles flying late in summer. 
