Morris tribune., 1910-10-28
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Ants in the House
and the Garden.
F. L. Washburn, Division of En-
tomoIogy, Minnesota Univer-
sity Farm.
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About this time of year, when ants
are apt to trouble housekeepers-and
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-
Hshed, is an awful pest.
While ants, when seen climbing up
apple trees, or shrubbery and plants
generally, do not directly iniure 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 girdling
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 up
arsenate of lead with a little water,
and applying it as a thick whitewash
to these parts. Arsenate of lead is
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-tlme remedy of powdered borax
scattered about the shelves; and pos
sibly they are familiar with the device
of putting the legs of the refrigerator,
or of the tables holding food, in pans
filled 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
a private house, where it had had a +
foothold for eight years, by fumiga-
tlon and freezing. We first traced the
ants to their nest in the walls of the
L IA AAC@SS CCA1CLAs anu IL leu 1ulSCIluS
kerosene, gasoline, and bisuIphate of
carbon, successfully, into the crevices
between the stones where the ants
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
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
of the case demand it.
Where ants are coming from the
outside, and are extremely trouble
some, they can be deferred from en-
-ering the house by applying with a
brush a band of sticky tangle-foot,
which can be purchased in cans, on
he outside of the foundation of the
house. AS long as this is kept sticky.
40 ant can get across it.
The large mounds out of doors, each
If which is occupied by hundreds of
ants, can be easily treated with bisul-
ohide of carbon. Make eight or ten
loles with a cane or croquet stick,
lbout eight inches deep, in each
Mound, Into each hole pour a good
ablesp poonful of bisulphtde of carbon,
dosing each hole with earth, and then
hrow a couple Of wet burlap sacks
'ver the hill leaving them over night.
)ne may have to do this twice, pos
IDLY; or, in other words, until the
Lueen or queens are killed.
The common little red ant, which
makes tiny hills on our walks and in
he grass, can be destroyed by pour
ng little gasoline into each hole,
ut this is an endless job where they
re numerous, and is not worth while
Mess they are extremely trouble
ONE