The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1899-01-12
INSECT LIFE IN S
SIAM.
ANTS OF ALL SIZES AND COLORs.
WHITE, WOOD-EATING SPECIES.
It's Invasion of the BunEpIow-Teal1.
Rosewood, and Tin the HOusekeep-
6r's Allies in RepeIIing the In
n
From the New York Post.

From the New York Post.
In thinking of life in tropical climates,
where small vermin of all sorts abound
people usually conjure up frightful visions
of snakes scorpions, centipedes and taran-
tulas, imagining that these creatures are
the scourges of the countries they inhabit,
and that they infest the houses, keeping
the unhappy inmates in constant terror
of their lives. Perhaps i'm some tropical
countries this may be true. but in Siam,
where the insect life is very rich and va
ried and where creeping things of all
kinds glide in and out among the rank
long grasses and tangled underground of
the forests, it is not the reptile or veno-
nous insects which give the most trouble.
Now and again a serpent three or four
feet long and terrible to look at, though
comparatively harmless, creeps in beneath
the house to steal eggs or young chickens,
but the cobras and others of that ilk keep
in their cool haunts in the jungles. The
scorpions prefer to hide in rotten wood,
and rarely show themselves unless their
homes are wantonly invaded during the
progress of some repairs about the prem
lSeS, WnllG the CeuIlpSLS5 use tIlSI nun
dred feet in harmless promenades about
the gardens. The great gecko, lizards,
called Took toes" or Took Klaus, from
their peculiar call, are welcome to catch
birds or moths on the Veranda, While the
small gecko or "chickims," little lizards
with their mouse-like eyes, hunt mos
| quitoes on our ceilings, or chase each other
up and down our walls with lively, pretty
motions that one can watch with nothing
! In MIA
four inches across and can jump four feet,
| often spin their webs in our houses, but as
! for tarantulas, they may really be the
| myths that some people believe them, as
far as we know for we never saw one in
| all the scores of punches of bananas that
/ came from our own trees.
The real pests are not these more for
Misunderstanding creatures, which have
such bad regulations, but that innocent,
respectable insect which Solomon praises
the ant. The whole country must be
honey combed with the catacombs of these
busy little creatures, and they have their
rests in nearly every tree. They are of
all kinds, of all sizes, almost of all coiors
black, brown, red and white.
There are the great black ants, with
| their strong jaws. They are wonderful
| scavengers, and instantly carry off any
small carrion, such a dead butterfly or
a bird, and with the flies, buzzards, crows
| and hariah-dogs, are the only street clean
ers public scaveugers and board of health
| that exist in most Siamese towns One
! often sees a train of these ants making
! journey, each with a tiny feather in its
| jaws, giving the strange effect of an army
of feather on the march. They seldom
come into the house, and are therefore less
| troublesome than the smaller varieties,
both red and black, one kind of which
| have a most poisonous bite, while some
| varieties are so small as to be almost mi
| croscopic. All these small ants come into
| the house in such numbers that we are
| obliged to set the legs Of tables, side
| boards, meat safes, etc, in small bowls of
water. If food is placed upon a table
not protected in this way, it will immedi-
ate.y be covered so thickly with hundreds
of ants that it IS scarcely possible to see
| the dishes or their contents. Sometimes, in
case of sickness, the bed must be thus
| protected, and yet, in spite of this precau-
| ton, if a corner of the sheet happens to
touch the floor, the patient is made aware
of the oversight by finding himself at the
mercy of an army of hungry ants, which
| had used that means of getting within
reach of the crumbs that fell from the sick
tray. At one time we We're puzzled to
know how the ants got into our meat safe,
in spite of all our precautions and found
| upon investigation that a small cord was
| hanging from the kitchen ceiling, and
came within half an inch of the top OF
the safe. The ants were using this as
bridge and were dropping one by one IN
| to the safe apparently unconcerned as to
| their return trip.
There are also great red ants-"sour
ants" the natives cal them from their
| strong, pungent color. These have their
nests i'm trees. and often interfere greatly
/ wifi ba Of
goes, as they have very strong jaws, and
bite fercely. They are easily enraged ana
| when once they have fixed their mandibles
firmly in ones flesh VIII submit to have
| their heads pulled off rather than let 60.
| The natives have a homeopathic treat
ment for these bites. They catch the
ants, pound them to a PASTE and apply
| the result TO the wound.
| 1t is impossible not to admire the sa-
gacity of these little insects, and the in
genious and perseverihg way they have Of
! surmounting obstacles in the attainment
of their ends; but it really seems as n
all these ants conspire to make housekeep-
ing in Siam difficult, and the white ants
are the worst OF all Any encyclopedias
| will give a great deal Of scientific infor-
nation with regard to these termites: will
tell of their highly organized social com
munities' or of their high and specialized
| Instincts But it takes one who has lived
| on intimate terms with them, and VINO
! has experienced the dire results of their
| high and specialized instincts" 10 SPEAK
| with real feeling on the subject of white
| ants. They appear to be the most harm
less of little grubs or slugs, soft, fat, lazy.
white fellows, resembling, rather, the
small worms one finds in chestnuts or m
| cherries than the more common and true
variety of ants. Their characteristic homes
are curious cone-shaped structures mace
Of sort of clay as hard and durable as
cement. Often, however they inhabit "A
hollow log, or live beneath the bark Of
trees. while sometimes they build from
| branches rs a hornet does.
The Encyclopedia Britannica says
The termltes serve an important purpose
in the particular areas of the world they
inhabit, in disntegrating, removing, and
destroying decaying wood" This Is.
doubtless. true, and we should not com
plain If they devoted themselves entirely
to this philanthropic purpose. But decld-
edly they do not. Their taste seems 10 be
| quite varied, and all kinds OF wood appear
70 be meat and drink to them. but they
! = fs.p- 81.