The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1916-10-21
BUGS ARE TRICKY
Folks Are Ticky Down in Rio
Bay-Maggie Mason.
Doesn't Do Any Good to Flee
From the FleaS.
BY MARGARET MASON.
Written for the State Journal.)


All the bugs are full of tricks
Down in Rio Bay.
Folks are also full of ticks
Then to nearly drive 'em frantic
AS they start to flea.
Ant and tick cut up. an ante
Ere they let 'em bee.
Rio De Janeiro. Sept. 20 (by maiD.
Brazil abounds in bugs, human and
otherwise. Joyous little fleas leap
lightly from limb to limb. You may
flea your bed but you'll not flee the
flee your bed but you'll not flee the
won't find a tick in your bed tho.
The festive tick nests rather in the
jungle. When you go mountain climb
ing, or orchid hunting or butterfly
chasing you'd better watch out for
ticks for you're sure to be covered
with them If you keep a watch on
your wrist you'll find as many as sixty
ticks a minute. 1 know a man per-
sonally who made this ticklish rec
ord.
Brazil is the happy hunting ground
of the ant, relatively speaking. There
are all sorts and conditions of ants,
big, little, red, brown and black.
young American engineer told me of
an ant experience he once had in the
interior of the country. He stopped
his horse to rest under a huge tree
and when the horse stamped and
pranced around he investigated. The
whole ground seemed to be moving
with a vast army of ants while up in
the tree was another mess of them,
cutting the leaves in half and drop
ping them down to the ants below,
who carried them away. The young
engineer said when he came back over
this same road in a couple of hours
the tree was stripped absolutely bare
AS can readily be seen ants are rath-
err rough on vegetation and when they
get in an orange grove they strip it
in single night.
UP in the interior the natives get
even with the big fat ants by eating
them They roast them till they pop
This is considered a great delicacy and
altho I never tried any in this style
I've had several small black ants
served in my soup.
A meek little bug is one that starts
in at the foot to get toe hold on life.
1t burrows in under your toe nail and
proceeds to lay eggs and establish a
cosy little home in toto. An ingenu-
GUS young Yankee who decided to
leave one nesting in his toe till he got
back to the U. s. a. where his doctor
brother could do some research work
only lost three of his toes as an out
come of his scientific enthusiasm.
A natty little gnat swarms around
the lights down in the town until it
gets tired. Then it sheds its wings
and proceeds to eat up all the wooden
furniture and household fixtures in
sight Native wood is just pie for it.
dining room suite is only a light
lunch. That is why, wood for finish
ing houses and making furniture is
mostly imported here. This little in
sect has a great literary bent also and
has been known to go thru a complete
set of Shakespeare in single night
Anything in spiders from a teeny
weeny one 20 a tarantula can be spied
around Rio and there is an insect like
our cricket only three times as large
that serenades you madly in a great
chorus when the night begins to fall.
II is TOBACCO brown IN color with
blunt head and has been christened
"Cigaro" because by wild stretch of
the imagination it may be said to re-
semble cigar butt. Three opal like
jewels are set in its forehead Other
| jeweled bugs are the many iridescent
beetles that abound here. OF the le-
gion of gorgeous butterflies one of
black and scarlet is espe cially odd
with perfect figure SO on each rear
wing.
And yet with this great array of in
sect life, of which 1 have only cited a
| paltry portion, Rio doesn't need
| screens in its windows 1t lacks the
two great insect pests of the u S. A,
the house fly and the mosquito. Not
but what it was formerly filthy with
this pernicious pair but the govern
ment got busy They established a
department of sanitary police who
spent their time tracking mosquitoes
to their lair and swatting flies All
water supplies are regularly PERSONAL
ly inspected and no pools of still water
allowed to collect anywhere here
abouts
l saw squad of these sanitary no
| lice in patrol wagon the other day
on the Avenida Rio Bronco. They
were all heavily equipped with guns
and cartridge belts. l suppose they
were going out to hunt mosquitoes.