The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1899-01-12

pine packing which contain ones
choicest and freshest supplies from home
Being children of evil who love dark
ness rather than the light they are rare
ly seen except at the swarming season,
and therein lies half their power to do
mischief. If, like other ants. they worked
boldly and without disguise, il would be
comparatively easy to guard against them
but as far as possible they avoid coming
out into the open, and when forced to
do so i'm their trips from place 90 place.
they build themselves tiny covered alley
ways of a sort of brownsh slime or ce-
ment, which they themselves appear to
secrete and which so nearly resembles
the color of earth or of wood that il takes
close scrutiny 10 discover their traces.
Ihey get beneath a box, and eat their
way through II from bottom to top leaV-
ing hole or two, each large as an
orange in every garment, every fold of
cloth in the box. In one night they ate
their way through a volume and a half
of our Appleton's Encyclopaedia, and if
they had not been discovered would speed
lily have put a hole, like a bullet hole.
through the whole set In the same night
they ate the wooden back out of marble
clock, and permanently dishgured the
marble by the cement-like deposit they
lett on 1t. They can spoil set of china
dishes completely in the same way. for
this secretion of theirs seems to have a
chemical effect upon the enamel of china
or glass, and 1t is impossible 10 remove
their traces. Another equally effective
way they have of spelling dishes Is to
eat away in one night the shelf supports
IN a china closet so that the upper shelves,
laden with glass and china, imported at
such care and expense from home fall
crashing on 10 the lower shelves, break
ing everything that is breakabe
one often does not suspect that white
ants are busy until some day great post
which supports the bungalow falls and
shows that all the core has been eaten out
until only thin she'll remained Or worse
yet, the post stands, but you awake one
morning TO find that they have worked
their way up through the hollow post
through the thick flooring, and have com
pietely ruined the parlor mating. With
their customary secrecy they make their
network of little tunnels beneath the mat
ting, and then, as their object is 10 get at
wood, they eat through the mating under
the legs of every article of furniture in
the room. In two or three nights they
can eat their way up into the furniture
also Sometimes, when a person living in
Siam leaves his bungalow for some time
without having made provision to guard
against white ants, he may return to find
everything in apparently good order but
the first chair he sits upon may crash be-
meath him, the white ants having eaten
the heart out of every leg and every
round, leaving only thin veneer of wood
And in the same way every article of furn-
lture in the room may also be a "holow
mockery."
workman is said to be known by his
chips, but these little workmen leave never
emp behind them. They make clean
sweep of everything that comes in their
way. One day in Bangkok a new arrival
came in, complaining excitedly that
thieves had broken into the go down" or
shed for storing goods, and had taken
away large box of valuable books nut
there few days before. On Investigation
a tiny pile of sawdust and a few nails
were found where the box had stood-the
white ants had eaten all the rest In the
same way the WelIs-Fargo Express Com
pany had to pay damages for a box con-
tanning dresses, shoes, gloves, hats. etc
which was eaten up to the very last bit
III the company's store rooms at Singapore.
If 1t We're not for the fact that white
ants do not eat teak or rosewood and oh
! Ject TO crossing tin, it would be almost
| impossible 60 keep anything from these
! Voracious little pests. But we protect oi1r
selves by having teak or rosewood nosts
! and beams to our houses, and in orr store
rooms we raise out boxes on tin cans or
place them on sheets of tin. If the ants
are very hungry they may even cross this
barrier but by taking his precaution and
by keeping careful watch, it is possible to
! feel comparatively safe
At the swarming season, when for a
| short time the termites become winged
| they have a new way of making them
selves disagreeable On warm moist eve
nings, after a rain, myriads of them, at
tracted by the lights, come into the house
| and fill the room so completely as TO drive
the rightful owner out. Generally there
| is vanguard of a few, and one who
| knows their tricks and their manners NAV
outwit them by instantly putting the
| lamps out on the veranda at the first sus-
picion of their coming. To destroy them
we place great pans of water about the
lamps, and blinded by the light the crea-
| lures fall into the water and are drowned.
| or, dropping to the floor and shedding
| their wings by a natural process crawl
| away, leaving their great gauzy wings
behind to be swept up in panfuls and
| burned
A rather sorry ending this to their one
! brief moment of freedom, of higher devel-
! opment, perhaps of higher enjoyment
than they ever experienced before or after.
but it is hard to feel much sympathy
for them when you have suffered from
these unspeakable torments.