River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1903-09-03
SMALL BUT A TERROR.
chronological Records of the
Government Department.


In a neglected vault in the depart
ment of agriculture was stored an ac-
emulation of records and documents.
One of the janitors was seized with an
inclination to give the vault a spring
airing. To his dismay. says the Wash
ington Post, of recent date, he dis
covered that an insect Of some descrip-
ton had dug trenches in long, straight
rows through certain sections of the
records piled high in the vaults, while
in other sections there were caves and
deep mines. When exposed for short
time to the air the records crumbled and
fell in hopeless ruin.
Here was a howdy-do.
Entomologists of the department ha d
told American housewives how to rid
their homes of reaches and bedbugs.
Farmers had been carefully coached in
the latest methods of destroying chinch
bugs. Science had practically annihilat-
ed the calico-back cabbage bug and the
lady bug gave promise of destroying the
San Jose scale. But here within the
walls of the department an insect had at
tackled and vanquished the musty rec
ords which told how other pests were
to be destroyed. c. S. Marlatt, widely
known to fame as the annihilator of the
nations bedbugs, was called on the in
slant.
s'White ants have done it." shouted
the janitor.
'It is the work of Termes flavides,"
cried Mr.. flavatt, reprovingly. Both
were correct.
The white ant is the most destruc-
tive of all insects. In the merry month
of May the mother f1ourishes from the
Atlantic to the Pacific. In the more
southerly regions it is at it's best in
April. Houses crumble and fall, and
their janitors know not why. 1t is the
work of the janitor's white ant and Mr..
Marlatt's Termes favides. "Our rec
ords are not complete" said Mr.. Marlatt,
in explanation, "but we know that an
accumulation of books and papers
owned by the state of Illinois was en-
tirely ruined by what you have called
the white ant. A library in South Caro-
lima, left closed for the summer, was as
completely wreck in the fall as our
own volumes in the adjoining vault.
Humboldt accounts for the rarity OF
old books in New Spain by the destruc-
tive work of these insects. The floor
ing of one of the sections of the United
States national museum was for sew
eral years annually undermined and
weakened by these insects, and the col
ony could not be located. 1t was finally
necessary to replace the wooden floors
with cement"
For these important reasons, among
others, we have the learned treatise by
Mr. Marlatt on the life, manner and Gus
toms of the white ants, with suggestions
as to the best manner of outwitting
them, which even the author must con-
TESS are not successful. When all other
recommendations fail, the only re-
source, according to Mr.. Marlatt, is to
replace flooring with cement and stone.
The term white ant" Mr.. Marlatt
insists, is misnomer The white ant
is not an ant at all. It's social habits
are much the same as those of other
ants, but it is allied to the dra-
gon flies and May flies. 1t is as
sured us in the learned essay of
Mr.. Marlatt that we shall always have
the white ant with us. In their swarm
ing, or nuptial, flight the white ants
come out in pairs. If one of these pairs
succeeds in finding decayed stump or
moist unabridged dictionary before
the season is over white ants are re-
produced at the rate of 60 to the min
ute or something like $4,000 a day.
the ant family. White ants contrive to
get along without queen. What the
entomologists call supplemental
queen, one that is never winged and
never leaves the colony, always comes
forward to replenish the species. This
queen, we are told is imperfectly sexed
but in the matter of egg laying is pro-
nounced success.
Having warned us of the damage done
to libraries, Office desks and even build
ings, Mr.. Marlatt observes that the
greatest protection against these in
sects is a perfect dryness. The pres
ence of flying termites in the spring
should be followed by an immediate and
persistent hunt for the colony. If the
colony is found about the house, steam
or hot water should at once be literally
used, and, if necessary an entire floor
removed in order to expose the insects
to attack. Better than hot water or
steam is kerosene or some other petro-
leurn OIL Where foorings and under
pinning or books and papers are badly
infested and a wholesale treatment be-
comes imperative, hydrocyanic acid gas
fumigation is urged.
Gen. NapoIeOn's Decoration.
The cross of st. Andrew, which the
car has just presented to Gen. Prince
T oI1iS NaDO1eCD has a. very remarkable