BLACK AND RED ANTS Ants. — The means employed 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 brim stone 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 refrig erators, or small closets, boxes, or tables raised on legs set in pans of water. Add a tablespoonful of kero sene 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 with scraps of meat or a piece of bread moistened in molasses on tt 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 con tinue until all are destroyed. Either of these plans will exhaust an ordi nary 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 lo cate 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 eradi cate. Trace the ants to the crevice whence they emerged, and inject kerosene, gasoline, or, better, bisul phide 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, gaso line, 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 boil* 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 bole with cotton and saturate it with this mix ture. But remember that it is a deadly poison.
Or pour into the hole a strong so lution 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 sub stance is not expensive and can be used freely. Close the hole immedi ately with the foot. The bisulphide will penetrate to all parts of the ant hill and kill the whole colony.