The Washington times., 1918-06-09

It. Nearly everything edible attracts
them. and ceaBeless effort is necessary to
Aeep them out Of the pantry and kitchen.
Most eagerly sought are cakes, candles,
sugar, preserves, cream, olive oil, lard, egg
out Of the shell-fish and raw meats.
News Of the discovery OF something good
is quickly carried to the nest, whence
come thousands of workers to carry off
the plumber. They will enter the refrig.
orator and crawl even into the ice-cham.
Der, regardless Of the cold, to reach some
muchdesired delicacy.
A piece Of meat wrapped in heavy paper
will quickly attract thousands Of the ants,
which work their way through the folds
until they get at the contents.
They will obtain entrance to a Mason
fruit-jar-if the rubber ring be not in place
by following the spiral thread between
cover and glass until the interior 10
reached. No matter how tightly the cover
is screwed on, they can do the trick
They go blocks away from home; they
cross streets and parallel car tracks, black
moving ropes Of ants, in their drives
against the larder. No matter how many
are killed there are plenty left to take
their places From each of the $4,000
houses of New Orleans they have been
estimated to steal IS of foodstuffs a year
They have practically destroyed the fig
crop here; and they cost the truck farms
and war gardens in the city limits $780,,
900, while the people spend 100000 a
year for Intellectual commercial ant pOisons
that merely check the pest in small sec
tons
What is the housewife to do under such
conditions? She can solve the problem in
some degree by taking care to leave no
particle of food lying about where II is
accessible to the pests-not even a crumb.
Whenever she manages to locate col
Dny, perhaps under the back-steps or be-
Heath tree near the house, she can de-
stroy it by deluging it with boiling water
or with kerosene. a compressed-air kerO-
sene sprayer, kept in a handy place, is
very useful Or she may saturate spOnges
. with sweetened water and when they are
full Of ants drop them into boiling water.
Eecharging them again and again, and re-
peating the process so long as ants arrive,
she may eventually destroy the working
population of the colony and the queens
will then die Of starvation.
Or again, she may put a little olive oil
into empty sardine tins or sauCers. The
Argentine ants are frantically fond of olive
oil. They arrive, and they get clOgged in
the stuff perishing by myriads.
Perhaps the most successful "repellant'
is ant tape" This is ordinary cotton
tape soaked in a solution Of corrosive sub
Innate and allowed to dry. No ant will
cross it. 1t may be fastened around table
legs, along the edges of shelves etc. BY
this means the dining-table may be ant
isolated likewise the kitchen cabinet and
the family refrigerator. But this is a
frightful poison to have around the house
Still another remedy is now being tried
out in New Orleans with considerable sue
cess. II is a slow, not a rapid poison, pre-
pared and proved by the Bureau of Ento-
mology, and the municipal government has
had 100000 cans of it made which it is
selling at half the cost of manufacture.
When fast poison is used the sexless
workers are killed before they can carry
II back to the queens at home, engaged in
maternal activities, and, besides, ants