Baraboo weekly news. [volume] (Baraboo, Wis.) 1912-197?, 1922-07-06

down them TO the rvyedas bel9~
These ants DO not cut or destroy the
gardens or the trees, instead they
eat grass.
Ant Big as Thumb
| Then there Is a large ant, that is
called arriero, or mule-driver. do
net know why they are called this, un-
less 1t is because they walk long dis
tances. in spite of any difficulty. One
night. when we were out in the coun-
try, these ants came and ate all the
leav es from big orange tree, and in
the morning the majordomo went out
to detroy their nests.
Sometimes they go a mile or more
from their nests "a chew leaves, but
this time they did not go so far. When
the major como found the nest he dug
into it until there were thousands of
ants running all around, then he made
fire and burned them up. But he
dug and dug until he found the
queens. because he said if he did not
get them, the ants would soon des-
troy more trees. We took one queen
big it nearly covered her thumb,
where she laid 1t. These ants bite
very hard. So do the queens of the
cargadores, which the people eat.
Their bite is very bad and causes
suffering.
When the ariero ants go long dis
they make wide
paths. When they get to a log they
do not go around it.They go over it.
Sometimes they lose their footing
and tumble over, rolling along thu
path, but they never let go of the
leaves they carry, sticking straight
up in the air.
Eat Other Insects
There is another large ant which is
called the mixer, because it milks
the insects, or sucks the Juice from
the plant-lice. These ants are about
a half inch long and are black. They
especially suck the plant-lice and they
have their nests dear these insects.
They pet stroke and clean the lice
to get the milk from them. AS we
have. lots of lice on our rose bushes,
in spite of all We can do to them,
have. watched the mixers at their
work often. They are very thick
wherever there are l1ce, but they
do not kill the flee. We wish that
they did
The carniverJus ants are little
black ants. If we kill crickets or if a
dead butterfly is around, these ants
try to get it into the hole. AS they
are very small, and the butterfly
hundred times larger a great many
ants cling to the sides of the butter.
fy and 'cy "a pull together to move
it. They always do move it. 1t makes
me think OF the pictures in Gulliver's
travels, where the Lilliputians are
crawling all over CULVER The ants
always try to get the whole butter
ly or BEETLE, or what ever il is they
are dragging, into the hole at once.
When they find that they cannot
do that, they take it to pieces and
carry in the pieces, little by little.
Ants must be wise, I think.
Ants Everywhere
The sugar ants are red and a little
bigger than the head of a pin. They
are given this name because they get
into everything that is sweet. When
there are too many OF these ants. we
put the dish that has the sweet into
a big bowl OF water. If the bowl is
not very large. the ants will make a
little bridge OF their own bodies and
cross II. Some people set their table
legs and all the cupboards in bowls
of water, but we do not, because the
water either evaporates soon or no-one
thinks to change 1t and It matches
mosquitoes.
There is another kind Of ant that
sometimes bothers us. 1t is similar to
the sugar ant, but IL eats bread only.
Even though We hang the bread bas-
kets from the ceiling by a rope, very
soon these little ants will run I'D the
wall, across the ceiling and down the
rope in a perfect stream to find the
bread rEgW
But the ant that we dislike most
is the comejen, or white ant. This
is the one that eats the books, cloth |
ing and the woodwork chairs and
tables. 1t also comes when Il rains. |
They come in great abundance, fall |
down on something and kick off their |
wings with their back feet Then they |
Look like white worms. md they 60
are set into the books and the cloth |
iry and eat their way as they g0.
They crawl and crawl and burrow
their way through everything. They |
go II and down until nothing out
holes c left OF the thing they are
ear. ne. They CT w. even in under ths
carpets and rugs and eat them, too,
- :h'v -: into ne tank and eat l
~ ami twn taIt"gL everything. "a
must always bo lrA.pg for them.