16 BULLETIN 965, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
Several small nursery trees infested with the cottony-cushion 
scale, Icerya purchasi Maskell, attended by ants, were banded with 
such tape to determine its effectiveness against the ants, as well as 
its effects on the trees. The trees were quickly freed of ants and 
remained so throughout the experiment. The tape, however, soon 
killed the bark down to the wood and the trees ultimately died. 
Fourteen large orange trees were banded with mercuric bichlorid ant 
tape on September 10, 1915, the tape being wound around the tree 
several times to form a band several niches wide. The bark was 
protected from the band by heavy paper. On October 10, one month 
after the bands were placed, an inspection showed that 5 of the 14 
bands had been crossed. These had been rendered ineffective by 
heavy fogs. 
The great danger attendant upon the use of corrosive sublimate, 
its ineffectiveness when exposed to moisture, and its high cost render 
this substance generally impractical for repelling ants. It is, how- 
ever, of special value for protecting apiaries which are seriously 
troubled by this pest. Newell and Barber, 6 working in Louisiana, 
invented a four-legged hive stand from which they were able to keep 
the ants for many months by winding ant tape about the legs. The 
writers have tried a similar stand under California conditions with 
success, even where honey and other substances attractive to ants 
were profusely scattered over the top. Equally satisfactory with the 
ant tapes was found a mixture of mercuric bichlorid and shellac 
which could be applied directly with a brush. A formula adapted 
from Horton 7 consists of: 
Corrosive sublimate : gm. .20 or oz. .f. 
Alcohol cc. . .60 or oz. .2. 
Shellac gm. .31 or oz..l. 
The corrosive sublimate is first dissolved in the alcohol, then the shellac added, 
and the mixture shaken until all is dissolved. 
Freeing Trees of Ants After Banding.. 
Freeing trees of ants after banding is an essential part of tree isola- 
tion. Heavy infestations of ants at the time of banding will some- 
times form a crossing over bands of sticky material from the accumula- 
tion of entangled bodies of ants which have attempted to escape from 
the tree. With corrosive sublimate or ant powders such attempted 
crossing in no way affects the efficiency of the bands; in fact, on such 
banded trees ants usually drop off before making an attempted 
crossing and the trees become free of ants unless colonies are already 
present in cracks or accumulations of debris in the crotches. Many 
6 Newell, Wilmon, and Barber, T. C. Op. cit., p. SS-91, figs. 11-13, PI. VII. 
-i Horton, J. R. the argentine ant in relation to cttrvs groves. U. S. Dept. Agr., Bui. 647, 
p. 64. 191S. 
