Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1916-10-26
MARGARET
FINDS LOTS Of
BUGS NBRAzIL
BY MARGARET MASON.
written for the United Pressl

written for the United Press)
All the bugs are full of tricks
Down in Rio Bay
Folks are also full of ticks
On their jungle way.
Then to nearly drive 'em frantic
AS they start to flea
Ant and tick cut up an antic
Ere they let 'em bee.
Rio de Janeiro, Sept. 2O.-(By MaiD
Brazil abounds in bugs human and
otherwise. Joyous little feas leap
lightly from limb to limb. You NAV
fee your bed but you1l not fee the
flea. Strange as it may seem you
won't find tick in your bed though.
The seftive 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 six
ticks a minute. | know a man person
ally who made this ticklish record.
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. A
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 huge tree
and when the horse stamped and
pranced around he Investigated. The
whole ground seemed to be moving
with 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 engin-
eer said when he came back over this
same road in couple of hours the
tree was stripped absolutely bare.
AS can readily be seen ants are ra-
Their 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 great delicacy and
although I never tried any in this sty-
lie 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.
It burrows in under your toe nail and
proceeds to lay eggs and establish
coy little home in toto. An ingeni-
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 it's wings
and proceeds to eat up all the wooden
furniture and household fixtures in
sight. Native wood is just pie for it.
A 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 through a COM
plete set of Shakespeare in a single
night
Anything in spiders from a teeny
weeny one to 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.
1t is tobacco brown in color with a
blunt head and has been christened
"Cigaro," because by a wild stretch of
the imagination it may be said to re-
semble cigar butt. Three opal-like
jewels are set in it's forehead. Other
jeweled bugs are the many irrides-
cent BEETLES that abound here Of the
legion of gorgeous butterflies one of
black and scarlet is especially odd with
perfect figure SO on each rear wing.
And yet with this great array of
insect life Of which I have only cited
paltry portion Rio doesn't need
screens in its windows. 1t lacks the
two greatest insect pests of the u. S.
A, the housefiy 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
spend their time tracking mosquitoes
to their lair and swatting flies. All
water supplies are regularly and per-
sonally inspected and no pools of still
water allowed to collect anywhere
hereabouts.
saw squad Of these sanitary po-
lice in a patrol wagon the other day
on the Avenida Rio Bronco. They
were all heavily equipped with guns
and cartridge belts, I suppose they
were going out to hunt mosquitoes.
|REAI. ESTATE