Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1900-07-21
SOUTH AFRICAN ANTS.
Their Predatory Powcrs-The Aard-
vaarls's Work.
From the London Mail.

vaark's Work.
From the London Mail.
Tommy at the front will be making
acquaintance now with a great many ami
mails and insects with whose friendship he
would gladly dispense. One of the pests
of South Africa are the ants: the black
ones that prey upon a mans person when
they get the chance, and the white ones,
that eat and enjoy anything from pair
O. boots to a bed room curtain
When Baldwin was hunting in Africa be-
tween the years 1852 and 1860, taking the
country between Natal and the Zambesi
for his quarry, he fell in constantly with
these ants. So vicious were the attentions
of the black ones that. valiant hunter
though he was, they came of the victors
in tussle between himself and them.
Had some exciting sport with sea cows
in a narrow river with very high reeds on
both banks" he writes in his diary. ITO
get a shot was obliged to climb the trees
overhanging the river, and had one or two
good chances, but the villainous black ants
fell upon me vigorously and in such count
less multitudes. biting so severely that
flesh and blood could not possibly hold out
another second. / was forced to descend.
and an old sea cow had been lodging for
two hours is indebted to the black ants for
her life"
raiding the happy homes of the colonists.
They undermine the foundations by eating
through them-a trick well known to the
contingent from Australia, where this crea-
ture is as much a pest as he is in South
Africa Tommy from the Australian
colonies will rank an old stager when
dealings with these destructive nuisances
are being carried on, and viii be able to
narrate many a narrowing story concern
ing them and their prowess.
There are several varieties of the ant
tribe but they all seem to be fully i'm
pressed with the proverb. In union is
strength" A house mistress will go to
bed happy one evening, and the next morn
ing when she descends will be confronted
with the mangled remains of what the
night before had been her sitting room car
pet A hearty meal has been furnished by
IL to legions of ants, who have not had
the honesty to come by day for the nospi-
tally that they know would be denied
them, but have secretly made their way
through the foor-a vast and greedy army
and have departed again before the
household has awakened.
The anthills of South Africa will be
revelation to Tommy" Fancy a mound
thirty feet high and 100 feet in circumfer-
traveller. refers in his book, I'm New South
Africa" to the protection these heaps af-
forded his camp. I'VE made our camp on
the sloping sides Of huge anthill, protect
ed by its mass and the clump of trees
growing on II from the bitter southeast
wind On one hill he counted twenty
trees of various sizes growing, the ma
jority of them thirty forty feet in
height,
Happily there is ant bear in South
Africa. The Beers call 1t HARDWARE"
the earth pig. 1t and the ants are deadly
enemies and both work at night. In its
habit of boring the "aardvaark" is like the
mole. but it is much more terrifying
creature to come across Unexpectedly than
is the little brown creature with which
Englishmen are familiar
This busy underground marauder forgets
to fill up the holes IL makes when Il ar
rives on the outer crust of the veldt, with
the consequence that to the rider these are
pitfalls more dangerous than are the rabbit
holes in an English warren to horsemen
here. 1t also causes consterna ton to the
nervous by tunneling just sufficiently high
to Great a series of convulsive earthquakes
guide to its subterranean promenades.
Not guessing what the cause is, II is alarm
ing to the ground ripple all of a sudden
and mounds of loose earth be thrown up
here and there.
The "aardvaark' is so ugly. and its ap-
pearance is SO sudden and totally unan-
nounced, that. stalwart men have been
known to flee before it. A colonist recalls
one story Of the war in Zululand when an
ant bear confronted a sentry on guard
one midnight. with the result that Tom
my was SOC taken aback that he fed i'm
mediately, startling the camp with the
awful news that the old gentleman was
in their midst.