The Port Gibson herald, and correspondent. (Port Gibson, Claiborne Co., Miss.) 1848-18??, 1850-02-01
Destructive Insects.

that within the last year, the records and pa
pers of the Probate Clerks office at Natchez,
were attacked and in some cases DESTROYED,
by an insect which infested it, So destructive
did they become in fact, that it became necessa-
ry to tear down the building and erect a new one
A parcel of these insects were collected by
Mr.. Thomas Affleck, Of Adams county, and
forwarded to DR.. Harris, of Cambridge, Mass,
"a gentleman who has devoted much time and
attention to that branch of natural history,) re-
the best mode of extermnation. From the
reply of Dr. Harris, which we copy below, it
will appear that they are an insect frequently
seen here in the early spring, emerging for a
few hours in countless swarms from their WIN
dow and door sills of houses, old posts, &c.
These same insects attacked pile of printing
paper in our Office some two years ago, and
destroyed several reams before we discovered
it. They had commenced ut the bottom of the
pile, and though the exterior remained perfect
ly whole, on attempting to remove it, we found
the interior completely riddIed
CAMBRIDGE, Mass, Nov. 20, 1919.
Dear Sir-On the 26th inst, received
your letter, together with the small parcel
therein enclosed. The letter, you inform
me. contains ''specmens of an insect which
is utterly consuming the records Of South
ern States transmitted by the Clerk of the
Probate Court Of your county (of Adams
in whose behalf you have sent them to
me, and by whose request you ask for in
formation concerning them, and for my
opinion Of the best means for preventing
their ravages.
Upon opening the parcel, | found, among
fragments of paper, and considerable
quantity Of earthly particles, the dried re-
mains of hundreds Of small insects, emit
ting a peculiar and disagreeabIe odor,
somewhat like that of old cheese. The
insects proved to be white ants, or ternlites,
which constitute one Of the principal scour-
gcs Of tropical countries, or as Linnaus
expresses it, s'iH0run1 Sit1nnaG caiaDlifaS," ;"
their greatest calamity. There are several
kinds or species Of tcrnlites, differing in
size, in their habits, and in their power Of
doing mischief; and they are not exclu-
sively confined to hot climates. some s2e-
cies inhabiting temperate regions, snch as
those that arc found in New England, in
decayed trees, and under stones in the
woods, and sometimes even within old
houses; but these Northern species may be
considered as harmless, compared with the
larger and more powerful tropical kinds
above mentioned, to which your Missis-
lsippi species seems more nearly related.
The ternlifeS appear to have obtained
the name Of white ants from their color
and habits. Like ants, the males and fe-
males, at a certain season of the year, take
wig, and emigrate in large sWarms from
theit habitations. In New England, these
insees are commonly called wood-lice. A
colony Of them was established under a
large sate stone, placed for doorstep to
an old house where | once lived. From
this place they made covered ways to the
threshold, sills and floor, which they per-
forated in various directions, without, how
ever, being exposed to sight. When the
time for svarming came, which always
happened in the evening and night, the
stone would be covered with moving
mass of winged males and females, among
which the toads were busily employed in
making an evening meal Of them; but al
though the toads eat hundreds of the in
sects, the numbers of the latter seemed
very little diminished. When morning
came, however. not one OF these countless
multitude remained; all that escaped their
natural enemies had flown away in search
of new dwelling-places.
The habitations of ternliteS consist either
of artificial earthen hilIocks, raised often
to great height above the surface of the
ground, or Of enormous nests of clay, fas-
tened to the branches of trees, labyrinth
Of passages formed in the trunks and
stumps of decayed trees, or of burrows
under ground, in all Of which these insects
are screened from the light, instinctively
Stunned by them, and from whence their
excursions for plumber and for building
materials are made through subterranean
passages or covered roads, carried often to
!, a great distance from their places of abode.
All these passages, whether made through
wood or elsewhere, are lined or covered
with a kind Of mortar of moistened earth
or clay. which becomes hard and solid
when dry, and efiectually conceals their
operations.
Wood is the proper food of these in.
sects; but hardly anything else comes
amiss to them that their jaws can pene-
trate. The tropical species, when they
make their way into houses or other build
ings, commit deplorable ravages in an in
conceivable short space of time, boring
through the wood work in every direction
and carrying their depredatons, through
their earthern roads. into articles of furni-
ture, boxes and books, utterly destroying
the whole interior before their presence is
conceived or even suspected. kaempfer
t speaking of the white ants of Japan, states
that on rising from bed one morning, he
saw one of their earthern galleries as thick
r as his little finger, formed across the tor
3 of his table, and on further examination
he found that they had bored hole Of the
same size up one leg of the table, carried
! their covered way over the top, and ther
) pierced through the other leg to the floor
doing all this in the course of single
Q night. II is stated that, in the same time
!, they will eat up all the boots and shoes
al