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Household and Garden Pests: Ants

BLACK AND RED ANTS - Ants. The means employed to keep the house free from ants are of three sorts: preventives, poisons, and mechanical methods.

To Get Rid of Ants. -Place lumps of gum camphor in their runways and near sweets infested by them.

Or scatter snuff in their runways, or branches of sweet fern or fresh green sage leaves or the leaves of green wormwood, or lumps of brimstone or flowers of sulphur or red pepper or powdered borax.

Or scrub shelves and drawers with strong carbolic soap.

Or inject diluted carbolic acid into crevices whence they issue.

Or inject gasoline.

Place any of these substances in their runways, and scatter it about shelves, pantries, and floors near where sweets are kept.

Or place preserves, cake, and other sweets attractive to ants in refrigerators, or small closets, boxes, or tables raised on legs set in pans of water. Add a tablespoonful of kerosene oil to the water to form a scum of oil over the top.

To Trap Ants. -Place near their runs a bit of raw meat or a bone HOUSEHOLD AND GARDEN PESTS with scraps of meat or a piece of bread moistened in molasses on a bit of board or wrapping paper. The ants will swarm on this, and may be lifted and dropped into the fire or a kettle of boiling water.

Or dip a good-sized sponge in a sirup made by dissolving borax and sugar in boiling water. Wring out the sponge nearly dry, attach a string to it, and lay it in their runways.

Have ready a second sponge prepared in the same way. As soon as the first is infested with ants, lift it by the string and drop it into a vessel of boiling water and substitute the second. Meantime rinse the first, moisten it with sirup, and so continue until all are destroyed. Either of these plans will exhaust an ordinary colony of ants in a very few days. The sirup containing borax will also kill those which get away from the sponge and escape the boiling water.

To Destroy Ant Nests. -First locate the nest by placing coarse sugar where the ants can find it. Each ant will take up a load of this and go directly to the nest. The red ant often nests in the walls or floors of houses; hence is difficult to eradicate. Trace the ants to the crevice whence they emerged, and inject kerosene, gasoline, or, better, bisulphide of carbon into the opening. If this fails, the nest is probably some distance off, and it may be necessary to take up a few boards to locate it.

When found, apply kerosene, gasoline, or carbon bisulphide. The small black ant ordinarily makes its nest under stones in the yard. The large black or pavement ant also builds out of doors under pavements or flagstones in yards.

To destroy these ants, locate their nests and drench them with boiling water or kerosene.

Or introduce carbon bisulphide into the ground near the nest. To do this, drive a hole into the ground with an iron bar, introduce an ounce or two of this substance, and cover it by immediately filling. the hole solidly with earth, Or dissolve 2 pounds of alum in 3 or 4 quarts of boiling water and pour this into the nests.

Or dissolve ounce of cyanide of potassium in 1 pint of water. Pour this into the hole and saturate the ground about it. Plug the hole with cotton and saturate it with this mixture. But remember that it is a deadly poison.

Or pour into the hole a strong solution of carbolic acid in water. To destroy the large mounds or ant-hills, make a number of holes in the mound with a bar or large stick, and pour an ounce or two of carbon bisulphide into each hole. This substance is not expensive and can be used freely. Close the hole immediately with the foot. The bisulphide will penetrate to all parts of the anthill and kill the whole colony. THE WHITE ANT This name is a misnomer, as the insect is not a member of the ant family, although its appearance and habits are similar. It is common throughout the United States, but most numerous and active in the Southern States, and in moist localities. The insects feed upon moistened or decayed vegetable matter, as the timber of buildings, books, papers, and the like. They burrow into the interior of these objects and sometimes riddle them through and through, so that they crumble into a mass of dust before any outward indication of their presence is observed.

Preventive Measures. - To prevent the ravages of the white ant, foundations of buildings, especially in warm climates and moist localities, should be of stone or cement, and should raise the walls well above contact with moisture from the soil. A clear space of gravel or asphalt next to the foundation, and the removal of decayed wood or vegetable substances, is helpful.

Or impregnate wood that comes in contact with the ground, or that is likely to be damp for any reason, with creosote.

Or use for such purposes California redwood, which is not eaten by these insects.

Destruction of White Ants. -The only certain remedy is the fumigation of the premises by hydrocyanic-acid gas. Frequent inspection of any accumulation of books and papers is advisable.

THE COMMON HOUSE FLY - To Banish Flies. - The preferred breeding place of the house fly is the manure pit of horse stables. The female lays about 120 eggs, which hatch in six or eight hours. The maggots or larvæ reach full growth in four or five days, and become adult flies in about five days more. Hence in the United States a single generation is bred in about ten days, and twelve to fifteen generations on an average every summer. Thus enormous numbers of flies may be hatched in a single manure pile.

The only effective means to prevent or reduce this nuisance is to board up a portion of the barn cellar, or build a lean-to against the horse stable having a tight trapdoor or screened window admitting to the stable, and a tight door to permit of removing the manure. Such precautions to prevent the entrance of flies, and thus to deprive them of their natural breeding place, have been proved by experience in Washington and other cities to greatly abate this nuisance.

In France the Matin, a Paris newspaper, offered a prize of 10,000 francs during the winter of 1905–6 for the best means of lessening this nuisance.

The prize was awarded by scientific men for a proposal to use residuum oil in all cesspools and similar places.

For each square yard of the pit mix 2 quarts of the oil with water, and throw into the receptacle. This covers the surface with a scum which kills all larvæ, prevents flies from entering and laying their eggs, covers the contents, and also assists in preventing the development of the bacteria of germ diseases. The same substances may be mixed with earth, lime, or phosphates, and spread upon the manure in barnyards, stables, etc.

Or scatter about horse stables sawdust saturated with dilute carbolic acid, 1 part of the acid to 100 parts of water.