37° 
BRITISH CENTRAL AFRICA 
as though these locust plagues were not wholly unknown in the south-central 
part of the continent, though fortunately they are only occasional occurrences, 
and locusts of the rapidly-multiplying rapacious kind do not seem to have 
a permanent home north of the Zambezi, as they do in North and South Africa, 
no doubt because the climate as a rule is too moist for their constitutions. The 
terrific downpour of rain during the wet season kills the mature insect and 
washes its eggs away. Undoubtedly much of the damage which the locusts 
did on their first arrival was due to laziness on the part of Europeans and 
natives who either could not, or would not, bother themselves with adopting 
extraordinary means for scaring the insects from the crops. Locusts strongly 
dislike noise and tremors of the atmosphere. We found at Zomba that an 
almost unfailing way to get rid of them when they descended in countless 
thousands on our gardens was to turn out large numbers of men beating drums 
and tin pans, clapping hands and shouting. The locusts then refrained from 
settling and passed on to less energetic neighbours. 
In extreme cases we fired off, with much effect, charges of dynamite. This 
never failed to clear us of locusts. Birds, of course, were our chief allies 
in combating this enemy. Not only ordinary insect-eating birds but kites, 
hawks, and ravens ; and this fact might be borne in mind by the European 
planter who is a little too apt to shoot these predatory birds which are in fact 
most useful in keeping down the locust tribe. The most effective locust killers 
are the crowned cranes already described, and for this purpose alone they ought 
to be domesticated and bred in large numbers both here and in South Africa. 
Another great pest is the white ant, or termite, which is not an ant at all but 
a Neuropterous insect distantly related to the cockroach group. The large, more 
or less conically shaped ant-hills of these termites are familiar features all over 
the country. 1 The white ant here is probably represented by the species Tenues 
mossambicus and T. bellicosus and by the genus Hodoteruies. No termites as a 
rule are found above an altitude of 4000 feet; consequently on the colder 
plateaux of British Central Africa these and many other pests disappear. It is 
also not very fond of a sandy soil and is absent in rocky country, preferring the 
red or whitish kaolin clay. In spite of its persistency it is possible to drive this 
insect away as I have repeatedly proved. 2 All ant-hills should be demolished 
and the ground below them dug up to about six feet in order to discover and 
destroy all the queens, as if one queen is left the community will simply rebuild, 
whereas if all the queens are destroyed they appear to wander aimlessly to their 
destruction. The white ants die if exposed to the light of the sun. They are 
very sensitive to light and only work in the daytime in earth tunnels which they 
build. It is these tunnels of red clay, which are sometimes made for many feet 
along the trunk of a tree until a dead branch is attained, which the ants are bent 
on devouring, that caused Professor Drummond in his work on Tropical Africa 
1 Other Termites, however, build nests shaped exactly like a mushroom, and not more than two feet 
high, mounted on a tube-like stem. 
2 Where the white ant is already well established in the foundation of a house, after every effort has 
been made to get rid of its nests from under the foundation without success, it can sometimes be induced 
to quit the building by the constant application of petroleum to the walls, as, like so many other insects, it 
detests the smell or taste of mineral oil. The first appearance of white ants in the plaster will be long 
clay tunnels appearing on the surface of the wall. These should be gently knocked off and there will then 
remain a number of round holes out of which the white ants have come. These should be closed with a 
mixture of lime and petroleum and if this is done repeatedly the white ants will leave the place, especially 
if all the approaches to the wall from the floor of the room are further smeared with petroleum. White 
ants are not fond of sharing a building with human beings, or of the society of man, as they dislike the 
jarring sounds and the tremor caused by much traffic. There is no doubt they can be got rid of to a great 
extent in human settlements. 
