The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-08-08
ground .any very great increase in their

ground ,any very great increase in their numbers was impossible.
 These unfavorable conditions have re- gently been changed. The soil has been dried out. Then too, the grades of the streets and houses have been raised two or even three feet the filling being done with river sand. Nothing could have been selected better suited to the ant than this sand.
 By this process of filling. every lot in New Orleans has been prnkwded with building material for the ants. This alone would account for the increase in the ant population; but there are other favorable conditions at work. The iu- mense arno0ht of sugar at New Orleans encourages the sugar ant; and the fact that most of the houses are buils of wood is another encouragement, for next to borrowing in the sand the black art loves to burrow in soft or old wood.
 It is this fact which has drought the insect into disfavor with ,the housewife. It is a borer or destroyer of wood, not so bad as the South American white ant, which 1t is said will carry away an en- tire house in a day, but still nuisance. destroying fences, posts and the galleries or porches of most Louisiana houses boast of. The amount of damage done in this way has been considerable and re- pairs have become a serious item. of ex-s penditure to the householder. A gentle man in Carrollton, in the upper part of New Orleans, was compelled to abandon his house altogether some time ago. The ants had bored into and eaten the wood until a mere shell was left. It Is becom- ing every day more necessary to prepare the wood against these ant ravages. A favorite treatment is a bath of creosote, the chemical driving out the sap and taking its place and serving as a protec- kAArn ak 4xamA akR aaA There are several of these creosoting works in or around New Orleans
 Tar, pitch, and other insect-proof ma terials are also being used in the laying of floors and roofs with good effect in keeping off the ants Brick houses are reasonably safe from the ants, but they occasionally do harm to brick walls by cutting away the plaster in their efforts to bore holes.
 In warehouses they have recently be- come troublesome and various remedies have been tried, with. however, little good effect. Tn new brick warehouses they are seldom seen and their ravages have been confined mainly to the wood-built parts of the city.
 An immense quantity of poisons. main ly arsenic, borax and benzine, has been used this year 70 keep out the nuisance. The old-fasllioned hot water remedy has been found inefficient. The new poisons are merely a mitigation of the nuisance and in spite of the dozens of remedies peddled through the streets no one has been able to get rid of the ants after they have once invaded a house,
 Recently they have been attacking the shade trees in such numbers that fears are entertained that they may prove as ruinous as the gypsy moth. Whether the are simply in search of the aphides and other tree insects which the eat or milk, or whether they themselves are bor- ing holes in the trees and destroying them cannot be determined; but 1t is mo- ticed that either because of the aphtdes or becase of the ants the trees patron i1ed by the latter are dying.
 So far little if anything has been acc complished in getting rid of this nuisance. but the gradual rebuilding, and the change from wooden to brick and stone houses will probably prove remedy.