NATURAL CONTROL. 75 
peared to recover slowly. By July 22 the colony had completely 
resumed its normal condition and the mites had been exterminated. 
That the Pediculoides could live and breed upon the ant larvae was 
established by placing the latter in a glass dish which was isolated 
from all workers and permitting them to become infested. On them 
the Pediculoides grew and increased as well, apparently, as on wasp 
and other larvae. Such enormous cultures of the mite as were intro- 
duced into the ant colonies in these experiments could not possibly 
occur in nature, and it seems a safe conclusion that this parasite can 
make no headway against the ant under normal conditions. 
EXPERIMENTS WITH FUNGOUS DISEASES. 
During 1909, at Baton Rouge, several experiments were made in 
the attempt to inoculate the ants and their larvae with the chinch-bug 
fungus, Sporotrichum globuliferum. Cultures were prepared from 
beef extract and corn meal, sterilized at a pressure of 18 pounds per 
square inch for 30 minutes at a temperature of 256° F., and these 
were then inoculated with the fungus from a dead beetle. After these 
cultures had been stored for about a week in a dark, damp place, 
they all showed a heavy white layer of fungous growth over the sur- 
face, and this layer was used in the experiments. 
Large quantities of this fungus were placed in Janet cages which 
contained strong and healthy colonies of ants with many immature 
stages. For a short time the workers would busy themselves carry- 
ing out the fungus and dropping it over the side of the cage support, 
but after a time they apparently became accustomed to its presence. 
It grew and increased inside the apartments in which the ants and their 
young stages were domiciled until it formed a heavy white mass over 
nearly everything, but in not a single instance was an ant or a young 
stage observed which appeared to be in the least inconvenienced by it. 
As a number of dead ants were found covered with fungi the 
various organisms on them were isolated and cultures made. The 
principal fungi obtained were Aspergillus and Penicillium. Cul- 
tures of these were also introduced into the ant colonies, but without 
effect. It was therefore concluded that they were purely sapro- 
phytic on the dead ants on which they were found. 
Attempts were also made to infect colonies with Bacillus larvse, 
the germ causing the disease among honey bees known as American 
foul brood. Owing to the fact that this bacillus attacks the larval 
stages of the honey bee, and considering the similarity of ant and bee 
larvae, it was thought that this disease might attack the larval stages 
of the ant. The experiments were made in a locality where the ant 
infestation was very heavy but where honey bees were not kept. 
Honey was thoroughly mixed with broken and mashed brood combs 
containing bee larvae badly infected with foul brood, and this honey 
