Willmar tribune. [volume] (Willmar, Minn.) 1895-1931, 1910-09-21
Ants in the House
and the Garden.
F. L. Washburn, Division Of En-.
tomo|ogy Minnesota univer-
sity Farm. .~*
+ \ \ + J. + j. j. !. j. j. ]. j. j. j. j.

are apt to trouble housekeepers-an
to some extent gardeners-one must
bear in mind that there are different
kinds of ants, which require different
kinds OF treatment. There is the large
black ant, and the large blackish and
reddish ant, which make large mounds
in the fields, and sometimes in the
lawn; then the small red ant, which
makes the tiny hills in our walks. or
in the sod; and then an extremely tiny
reddish ant, which lives almost entire.
ly in houses, and which, once estab-
lished, is an awful pest.
While ants, when seen climbing IN
apple trees, or shrubbery and plants
generally, do not directly injure the
plants-since they are for the most
part after the plant lice, which give up
TO them, in response to their caresses,
sweet honey dew, Of which ants are
very fond-nevertheless the black ant
sometimes girdles and kills shrubs
like the lilac and SNOWFALL.
Remedies. When ants are gird]ing
a SNOWFALL or other shrubbery, we first
have recourse to strong tobacco wa,
ter, to see whether we can drive them
away. If they still persist in eating
the bark, we advise uncovering the
crown and larger roots, mixing. I'M
arsenate of lead with a little water.
and applying it as thick whitewa sh
to these parts. Arsenate of lead is a
poison; which, however, applied in that
way, would not injure the bush.
Ants in houses are sometimes very
annoying. There are various WAYS Of
getting rid of them. First, one must
find out from whence they come. and
aim to destroy the queen or queens.
These, in all ant colonies, are the only
ones which produce eggs; and as long
as the queens are left living the colo
MES will continue to increase.
Our readers are familiar with the
old-time remedy of powdered borax
scattered about the shelves; and pos
slbly they are familiar with the device
OF putting the legs of the refrigerator.
or OF the tables holding food, in pans
hlled with water covered with kero-
sene. There is also the time-honored
method of filling a sponge, or several
sponges, with sweetened water, and
putting it, or them, upon shelves fire.
quented by ants, and when filled with
ants, dropping them into boiling wa
ter, and repeating the process.
Some ants in the house will eat the
following poison mixture: Paris green
and molasses or syrup-an abundance
OF Paris green. A saturated solution
OF alum, applied over shelves and al
lowed to dry, appears to leave a de-
post which is obnoxious to ants, and
they avoid it. One must bear in mind.
however, that until the queen or
queens are killed ants will continue
to come.
IN the case of the very minute ant,
which sometimes occurs, especially in
the house, we have eradicated it from
private house, where it had had a
foothold for eight years, by fumiga-
ton and freezing. We first traced the
ants to their nest in the walls of the
furnace cellar, and tried injecting
kerosene, gasoline, and bisulphate of
carbon, successfully, into the crevices
between the stones where the ants
entered. This did not meet with per-
feet success; SO, in the middle of the
winter, with the family out of the
house, we fumigated with the deadly
gas known as hydrocyanic gas; and
afterwards, by opening all the win
doWs, secured temperature in the
house something like degrees below
zero for three or four days. The ants
have not appeared since, although
three years have gone by since the
treatment. This, as will be seen, is
heroic treatment, but sometimes the
exigencies of the case demand it.
Where ants are coming from the
outside, and are extremely trouble
some, they can be deferred from en-
terlng the house by applying with a
brush a band Of sticky tangle-foot,
which can be purchased in cans, on
the outside of the foundation of the
house. AS long as this is kept sticky,
no ant can get across it.
The large mounds out of doors, each
Of which is occupied by hundreds of
ants, can be easily treated with bisul-
phide of carbon. Make eight or ten
holes with a cane or croquet stick,
about eight inches deep, in each
mound. Into each hole pour a good
tablespoonful of bisulphide of carbon,
closing each hole with earth, and then
throw couple of wet burlap sacks
over the hill, leaving them over night.
One may have to do this twice, pos
sibly; or, in other words, until the
queen or queens are killed.
The common little red ant, which
makes tiny hills on our walks and in
the grass, can be destroyed by pour
ing a little gasoline into each hole.
but this is an endless job where they
are numerous, and is not worth while
unless they are extremely trouble
some.
Silage Valuable for Dairy Stock.
An experiment in Vermont, with
corn for ensilage, showed that, as a
milk-producer, one acre of corn in the
silo was equal to one and eight-tenths
acres of corn fodder. Silage is i'm.
portant in feeding steers, but not so
valuable as in feeding dairy stock. No
way has been found by which so
large an amount of digestible and
cheap food can be secured from a
given amount of land as by the rails
ing of a silage crop. And then TIE
si!o will hold at least twice as mucn
div matter as the same space in the