Evening star., 1936-05-02

Stamp hill ever 50 nat, there will
be another one the next morning.
Nothing is more distressing to the
lawn lover than series of red sandy
hills appearing in his grass.
Often the more one tries to do some
thing about them, the worse the lawn
looks. The best policy. In most cases, Is
one Of hopeful waiting.
Most often these hills will tend to run
out in time, and the grass to grow over
them. Usually about a month is required
for the completion Of this process.
Here, as in fighting weeds. the best
way is to get as good grass as possible,
and as much Of it.
Grass will crowd ants out, lust as it
will crowd out weeds. The secret is to
sow fresh seed, particularly at this sea-
son. AS far as we can discover, ants do
not eat seed. Much Of it will disappear,
it is true, but solely as the result of the
mining operations of the ants. Some
Of the seed will germinate, and come
up in time. A halfway decent lawn, too.
will grow over the bare spots left by ants.
~ *
Gardeners often are much exercised
over the appearance of ants in numbers
on peony plants and blossoms, Just be-
fore the latter open.
The insects are after the sweetish
secretion which coats the buds, and
probably will not damage them.
Such a fault as the non-opening of
a peony bud can scarcely be laid at the
door Of the ants. The "bull-noSing" of
certain varieties Of roses is mostly due
to rain at just the wrong time, and this
same may apply to blasted peony buds.
At any rate, it is unnecessary to blame
the ants. from all we can gather on the
subject. Nor are we sure that cleaner,
more sanitary garden necessarily fol-
lows on the eradication of all ants, as
far as that is possible.
They, too, are part of the picture.
Perhaps if we let them alone they will
not harm the garden as much as
we think.
Yet 1t must be admitted that ants,
while engaging in their habits and lives,
and sometimes even comical, to the per-
son blessed with sense of humor, are
to be viewed with suspicion, mostly on
account of the possibility of their being
related to the creatures which dam
age wood.
The average home owner is not versed
in termites and their lore. Hence he
must view with alarm, and properly so,
all ants which have wings, or which
strike him as just little larger than
ants ought to be.
In this he will be wise. Everybody
knows the little red ants, the pestiferous
sort, but, after all, these do little, if any,
damage, unless they get inside the
foodstuffs.
Large bull ants, by whatever scientific
name known. may be, and sometimes
are. the inimical sort which do real
damage. If they are the real thing they
build little tunnels of mud up the sides
Of foundations, to keep them in touch
with the moisture they must have.
Fear these, but not the ordinary gar
den ants. While the latter may be a
nuisance, from the gardening stand
point, at times they are amusing, and
always are instructive. There is still
wealth Of sermon in an ant. It is Just
as busy today as when the pyramids
were built. Evidently the ants of Amer
lea are blood brothers to the ants Of
Palestine. One touch of insect nature
makes the whole world kin. These little
busybodies keep Just as eternally at it
as 'go-getter" of the human sort, and
they all get together in the ant heap
at last.