The Ottawa free trader., 1874-05-30
Mad Ants.

Don Francisco Vclasques informed me in
| 1870 that he had q powder which made the
ants mad, so that they bit and destroyed each
other. He gave me little of it, and it prov.
ed to be corrosive sublimatc. lmade several
trials of IT, and found it most ctficacous in
turning a large column of ants. y little of it
sprinkled across one of their paths in dry
weather has most surprising effect. AS soon
rs one of the ants touches the powder it com
mences to run about wildly, and to attack
any other ant il comes across. In couple
! iofhours round balls Of the ants will be found
! all biting each other; and numerous individ-
uals vii. be seen bitten completely in two,
whilst others have lost some OF their legs or
antenne News of the cOmmotiOn Is carried
to the formicarium and huge fellows, meas.
uring three quarters of an inch in length, that
only come out of the nest during migration
or an attack on the nest of one OF the work.
ing columns are seen stalking down with a
determined air, rs If they would soon right
matters. As soon, however, as they have
touched the sublimatc all their stateliness
leaves them; they rush about; their legs are
seized hold of by some of the smaller ants al.
ready affected by the poison; and they them
! selves begin to bite, and in short time be-
come the centre of fresh balls of rabid ants
| The sublimatc can only be used effectively in
dry weather AT Colon found the Ameri-
cans using coal tar, which they spread across
their paths when any OF them led to their
gardens | was also told that the Indians
! prevent them from ascending young trees by
tying thick wisps OF grass, with the sharp
downwards, round the stems The ants can
not pass through the wisp, and do not find
out how to sulmount 1t, getting confused
among the numberlcss blades, all leading
ldownwards. | mention these different plans
of meeting and frustrating the attacks of the
ants at some length, as they are one OF the
greatest scourges of tropical America, and 1t
; has been too readily supposed that their at
tacks cannot be warded off. ! myself was
enabled, by using some of the means men
f. toned above, to succcssivciy cultivate trees
and vegetables of which the ants were cy.
l luemely fond. Notwithstanding that these
i ants are so common throughout tropica,
t America. and have excited the attention OF
n nearly every traveller, there still remains
Y much doubt Us to the use to which the leaves
are put. Some naturalists have supposed
I, that they use them directly as food; others
l. that they roof their underground nests with
them. believe that the real use they make
e OF them is as manure, on which grows d
y minute species of fungus, on which they feed
le that they are in reality mushroom growers
II and eaters-N Naturalist ia Nicaragua
u
n. COULDN'T BLUFF HER.-Among the walt
m ing Passengers at the Central Depot ON Saiur
ne day, says the Detroit Free Press, was widow
he woman and five children, and by and by
a man who was waiting for the same TRAN
opened conversation with the widow, an'
C soon remarked that he'd like TO marry jus
K, such a little woman. Here. Susan, holt
IN this saichelw said the woman, turning L
her eldest daughter, and then reaching fo
4, the mans arm she continued; I've beer
Of looking for you about five years." Every
n body shouted and jumped in clec, and wher
10 the scapegost backed fiat down they said h
lou rht To be dumped into the river.