Cincinnati daily press. [volume] (Cincinnati [Ohio]) 1860-1862, 1861-03-07
The Anti Of Florida.

A correspondent Of New York paper
writes from Florida as follows;
Pest Of F~lorida-but especially of st. Au-
Qustine-is the small black ant. This crea-
ture, though not much larger than a minute
red species which curses the sweetmeats
pantry Of the Northern h~ousekeeper, with
the exception Of the terrible African ants,
Is the most formidable member of the whole
ant family. His sense Of smell, or whatever
you may choose to call his variety OF sensi-
t~iveness to edibles, is acuter than any ami
mails l ever saw. Before we we're initiated
into his habits we frequently left oranges on
our mantle. piece OF table. If we took them
down an hour afterward we invariably found
their insides swarming with ants who had
in that short time entirely removed the pulp
and were now clearing off the white par
tition walls of the lobes.
have seen oranges made into very pretty
rattles for children by these ingenious little
manufacturers. All you have to. do after
ward is TO leave you orange out In the sun
and let the skin dry stiff. These creatures
attack not only every dead thing, but even
the smaller living animals. The last two
months we stayed in Florida, we kept a cage
containing q dozen chameleons. The gam
bols of these beautiful and graceful little
creatures were q constant source OF amuse-
ment to us. -.
They became so tame that they would sit
on our hands and go through their changes
of color there like a vivi6ed bracelet of jew
els. All they asked was plenty of water,
which we kept in a little stone cistern at the
head of the cage, and two walls full of live
flies per diem. One day | strewed the cage
| with unwashed sand, hoping that they
would lay there and hatch a family. I'M
Willingly l included in this sand a colony of
| ants. The next morning when we e to
pay our pets the customary, visit, all the
smaller ones were dead-and the large ones,
though fighting bravely, blind. The ants
system of attack had been to mount the
heads of the chameleons-bore through
their eyes-and thus entering their body, to
excay ate it as completely as a tunneling ma
chine. | found nothing left of our dead
cbameleons but their hollow skin. When
we got our next cage full of pets, you may
be sure we were careful 70 drown the ants
out of any sand we put in.
The little villains attack every thing that
in the remotest degree may be regarded as
edible. You deposit a lump of sugar on
your table; there is not an ant visible at the
time; come back in fifteen minutes and they
will have galleried it through and through
They leave you nothing but the peel of your
sugar-cane-they gut your very pincushior
Of its bran. The only way you can possibly
preserve any edibles in your room is to stand
the Qlsn cQOFAlntng bhtlu III u pau VI "hVeI
If you would keep any thing from theil
assaults on your table or bureau, you mus
tie pieces of lamp wick, saturated in zorro
sive sublimate, around the legs or feet. Thi
is an unfailiDg precautionary measure, an
the n constantly adopted by St. Augustin,
people, In that city the ants make thei
great rendezvous, the feas being compare
lively few.
Without moraliziug, let me say that tn
Florida ant is one of the most benign adjust
ments of nature. We may be vexed at him
we undoubtedly sball-but we can not fai
to perceive that he does a vast deal of good
He and the turkey buzzards are the grea
scavengers of Florida. All along the shore
of the upper st. Johns lie dead alligator
who have fallen by the shots of some steame
marksman, alligators who have died a nat
ulal death, defunct cattle, swine aud smalle
beasts. How shall the scraps on the Rubbish
heap of mortality be kept from injecting th
airLfrom involving in their death yet mol
Iife2 The breath is hardly out of their boo
les before the high gliding buzzards know
and swoop through their mile OF sky upo
the prey. They sit at the obscene banqi'
till every appreciable particle of flesh is tor
from the skeleton. AS soon as they lea'
the bones, up troops an army of black al
to clean them. In one day, assisted by Il
bright Florida sun, they shall have dor
their work so thoroughly, left itso white ar
dry, that it is no longer a cdrcase by an an
/, tomicdl pTepGrdtion-fit for our mostfastidiol
! cabinet-without odor, without moistur
. Thus the ants are auxiliary both to life al
science.