Show i MONSTER OF ANTS they teach in nd I 1 perfect there are more ants to the square mile in florida than in any other country in the world says a writer in the savannah news there are ants which will measure more than half an inch in length and then ants so small that they can scarcely be seen to move with the unaided eye there are red ants and black ants and troublesome ants but as bad as they are I 1 have never heard of them out the seat of a mans trousers as a missionary bev mr wilson once told the writer he saw the army ants do in india while the man was sitting on the earth for a few minutes beside him but the florida ants will take out the lettuce and other minute seeds from the soil in which they are planted and actually destroy the bed they will suck the life out of acres of young cucumbers and melon plants uproot strawberry plants or cover the buds earth to such an extent as to kill them they will pet into pie pickle sauce sugar on meat in hash will riddle a cake or fill a loaf of bakera bread till it is worthless all remedies failing I 1 took to baiting them near their nests with slices of meat bones apple and pear parings and when I 1 had from fifty thousand to one hundred thousand out turned a kettle of boiling water on them I 1 have killed during the last week over one million in the space of a quarter acre lot and I 1 have almost whipped them out I 1 had to do this to secure any lettuce plants and many observant farmers complain of seeds men when they should attribute then troubles to insects it is very curious and instructive to see how promptly the ants which escape the scalding go to work taking cut the dead and after pulling them outside first then go to excavating again and rebuilding their cells and runways this being done very quickly the next work on hand is the laying in of a supply of food by hauling the dead bodies of the hot water victims into their storehouses you may see a small black ant hauling and tugging at the carcass of a red ant twenty times its own weight and he always succeeds in the end in hauling it in the warehouse of the colony next you may see a sort of ambulance corps searching for the disabled these are taken to the underground house where the surgeons and nurses are in waiting then too you may see the timekeepers time keepers and bosses directing this on or turning another back on some errand or to some other duty there is not a moments delay no halting feet no idle hands but all move as if it was their last day on eartle and this was the only hour left in which to redeem a life for lessons in industry and perfect government go to the ants |