X 
WHITE ANTS 
143 
When bitten by the death adders, which are numerous 
here, they rub a portion of the creature’s inside on the 
wound, and this they say always cures it, though they 
are sick and weak for some days after. They think 
less of this bite, however, than of most others. Almost 
every flowering shrub is the home of colonies of green 
ants, and woe betide you if you shake down a shower of 
them upon yourself, as I did more than once. Leaves 
and flowers are spun together by spiders that the ants 
keep for this purpose, and inside these homes they lay 
their eggs. They are decidedly vicious and can give a 
very sharp nip. 
The worst pest in insect life that Queensland 
possesses is the “ white ant ” or termite. Nothing 
comes amiss to them — books, pictures, clothes ; any- 
thing but solid rock they will riddle to powder ; every- 
thing is grist to their mill. This is why houses are 
built on piles coated with tar, because of their antipathy 
to this. They will build up towers and domes with an 
alarming rapidity. Penetrating down one of their 
mounds of earth, you will find spacious nurseries, 
galleries, and chambers of most elaborate construction, 
under the multitude of cupolas and pinnacles. The 
queen is a hideous, shapeless-looking, swollen termite, 
with disproportionate bulk. The perfect insect in due 
time becomes possessed of badly-fastened wings, which 
on the slightest provocation fall off, while others of 
poorer rank never acquire a fuller development than 
that of larvae. There are scorpions too ; I found one 
in my bed at the Barron Falls, and wondered what 
the hard thing was that I was lying on, but it never 
bit me. 
Another thing to be warned against is the nettle 
tree. A “ gentleman,” thinking he would play an 
amusing trick on me, gave me some of its branches in 
