Paragould soliphone. (Paragould, Ark.) 1918-1950, 1922-05-01
INSECT PLAGUE
WORRIES ENG.
SCIENTISTS
Argentine Ant That Devours
Babies and Thirteen 9th
err Dangerous Pests Are
Studied.
BY f. A. WRAY,
International News Service staff
Cn1.1RsIl,nI ent.

COfreSpf'ndenl.
London, April 29.--Can human
brains win in the great struggle
that the insect is waging on the
very existence of civilization?
That is the question that is now
agitating British men of science.
Professor Harold Maxwell LEROY
I1ngland's leading entomologist, has
brought forward fourteen instances
of the terrible ravages now being
committed by insects throughout the
world His main example is the
Argentine ant which eats babies.
This insect first reached England
in 1918, after having spread over
half of the world, especially Spain.
since 1897. 1t has not merely de-
v0ured infants in their cradles in
the Argentine, but it has completely
wiped out the birds of Madeira by
eating their nestlings and is running
the orange and coffee harvests
throughout the Eastern and West
ern Hemispheres.
Keeps Green Flies Prisoner.
1t often kills the plants, not di-
rectly, but by encouraging other
insects, especially the green fly
which it keeps as a man keeps cows.
1t even builds houses for them, acts
as doctor to them and defends them
from enemies.
At the same time the ant, which
is omnivorous, carries and spreads
many of the worst human diseases
There is every fear that it may find
a congenal home in London.
Professor LEROY next instances
the boil weevil, which attacks the
cotton plant After twenty years OF
research no preventive has been
found against this insect, whose
ravages are so we'll known through
out the cotton growing areas. The
professor agrees with the best Amer
lean opinion that the next five years
will see practically no cotton grown
in America, and he anticipates that
jhe world will be at least 100000
bales short annually
These are not the worst of the
,eylls. Other INSTANCES that 1rotes
cor L.eiroy gives are.
Tie flea has caused 10o0.oVl
deaths in India by CARRYING plague
The housefly kills 1000 children
in England every year by impart
ing infant diarrhoea. Houseflie!
he says, are as numerous as they
were 800 years ago. they carry
typhoid, enteric, cholera and dyson.
terry.
The British system of sanitation
in Mesopotamia was ideally de-
signed for carrying flies. r.
% Mite Worries Women.
A number of women are on the
verge Of breakdown because of the
prevalence of the almost invisible
house mite.
The beetle that destroyed the an
cient oak roof of Westminster Hal
is slowly but surely destroying st
Paul's and all the other ancient
buildings Of London.
The louise is the cause of typhus
and all the other plaques in Russia
and will wipe out nations if condi-
tons prevent cleanliness.
viii intellectual man win against
these blind insects? asks Professor
LEROY. He is sufficiently optimistic
to believe that he will but that it
will need all the energies of applied
science for years to come to secure
the victory.
An inference drawn by Professor
LEROY is the urgent necessity fol
establishing new cottongrowine
areas within the British Empire.
There is no time to lose" he
says. Before the war the United
States produced half the worlds raw
cotton. Her output has fallen from
fourteen million bales to seven mi
lion bales and threatens to vanish
under the peril of the boil y eoyil.