The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1896-10-22

/ from the premises
The reaches OF modern times are just
about what they were in the carboniferous
/ era. The males usually have two pairs Of
| wings; in some species the females are
! wingiess. The legs are long and powerful
and are armed with strong bristles; the
| jaws are strong and adapted for biting
/ so that they are able to eat all sorts Of
/ substances. They are omniverous, de-
! vouring almost everything that comes in
| their way Sometimes they gnaw shoes
| and clothing, and they do great damage
| to books, being attracted by the paste.
| On shipboard entire supplies of ship bis
! cults have been eaten up or ruined by
them.
The damage they do is not only in what
they consume, but in the soiling and rem
| dering nauseous Of everything with which
they come in contact. They leave behind
them a fetid odor, which comes chiefly
from a fluid exuded from their mouths.
On the other hand, they are useful as
scavengers. and it said that they hunt and
devour bedbugs. In the tropics they have
a way of eating the eyelashes of human
beings during sleep so that children, par
ticularly those whose slunlber is apt to be
sound, are dishgured. They also bite Off
bits of the toe nails. One of the best
methods of killing reaches is to fill a
glass partly full of stale beer, of which
they are extremely fond, and to place
against 1t a number of sticks, so bent over
as to project into the interior of the YES
sci. The reaches climb up the sticks and
fall into the jar.
These interesting facts are given on the
authority of DR.. L. o. Howard and his
principal assistant in the chronological
bureau, Mr.. c. i. Marlatt, who are the
authors of the forthcoming book already
referred to. They call attention to the
tact that the termite, popularity known as
the white ant" has invaded the eastern
part of the United States, and Is likely to
excite the serious attention of house
wives. 1t has a way of eating out the
entire inside of table, desk, or other ar
ticle of furniture, which preserves an adj
mirable appearance of solidity until reduc-
ed to mere shell; then suddenly it coll
lapses in a cloud Of dust. In the tropics
1t often happens that houses, and even
bridges and Wharyes, are in this way ex-
cavated and destroyed. The creature that
does the damage is not an ant properly
speaking, but an insect related to the
May fly. 1t never appears in the light of
day except in spring, when small, brown
ish, ant-like creatures emerge from cracks
in the ground or from crevices in buildings
in such enormous numbers that they may
be swept up by the quart Practically AN
of them are destroyed or die; burt, if a
pair of them happens to survive they will
start new colony. The female now a
queen, becomes enormously increased in
size, and she is transformed into an egg
laying machine of well-nigh fabulous ca
pacity. In truth she lays about 10000
eggs a day.
1t seems rarely to happen that really
truly queen survives. Lacking one, the
white ants" are able to develop a sort
of queen from a female larva, which is
never winged. A colony of these curl
GUS creatures is composed most important
ly of workers and soldiers, the latter de-
Tending the communal home. The work.
ers make the excavations, build the nests,
care for the young, and minister to the
wants of the queen mother, who furnishes
all the eggs for the forthcoming genera
lions. Both workers and soldiers are
blind. The ANTS" feed on decaylng wood
or vegetable material of any sort, being
able to cary their tunnels into timbers
furniture, books or papers. Their food Is
the material obtained in boring. They
exude sort of nectar, which they feed to
the queen and to the young. These in
sects quickly shrivel and die when expos
| ed to light and air; consequently, in their
| mining timbers furniture and books che
surface is always left intact. In this way
| the damage they dois entirely hidden an
| til an accident reveals the trouble. The
| wood flooring of a section OF the National
| Museum, at Washington had to be replac-
| ed with cement recently on account of the
~,
| Kerosene is good medicine for them, IL
| the main nest can. be reached.
lively creature that greatly annoys
| the average housewife, because she is
afraid of 1t, is the so-called "centipede."
Its appearance is uncanny, and 1t has
| an unpleasant way of darling at per-
| sons, its object being to take refuge be-
meath the skirts or under the pantaloons.
| There is a widespread notion that it Is
| poisonous, and this idea may not be al
| together unfounded. Indeed, there is
| good reason for believing that the IDEA Is
! quite correct though few cases of it's hav-
| ing bitten any human being are recorded
If caught between the sheets in a bed. it
! will bite unquesdonably, and severe swell
| ing and pain are apt to result Oddly
enough, nothing worth mentioning is
known of the life history of this queer ami
NAL. Plentiful sprinkling of insect pow
| der is pretty sure to discourage its pres
| enoe.
Somehow the house-fly is almost too
common to be worth discussing; and
| yet 1t would be a godsend if somebody
would find means of lessening its num-
| Der. AFTER all, the remedy is not far to
\ seek, thanks to the complete knowledee
which science possesses to-day respect
ing the life history of this familiar in
| sect. 1t breeds almost exclusively in
| Morse manure, and proper care and
covering of that product would prevent
| the HES from laying their eggs in It. If
that could be managed there would be
almost no flies; the species would quick
! ~ become so scarce as to be no longer
troublesome. The eggs are Matched in
| twenty-four hours. The young are foot
less maggots, and after week are trans
| formed into pupae, from which they
emerge In the shape of perfect flies A
female fly lays perhaps 100 eggs
People are much addicted to sending
cOnSlRnmentS of finaS to the dana RI ont
| of agriculture. Most of the consignors
are persons whose houses have been over
run by these Objectionable insects. They
want to know how TO get rid of them
| Naturally, they imagine that a flea is
always flea, and that this opinion COW
ers the subject; but the fact is that there
are many species OF fieas. There is a.
! Kind OF flea which makes human beings
its special prey, while other species are
addicted to dogs and cats. The human
! flea Is known to science as Pulex irritans:
that which infests the dog and the cat
is Pulex serraticeps. 1t is a happy cir
cumstance that the common house-flea is
| of the latter kind, inasmuch as IL prefers