Democratic Sentinel, Volume 18, Number 36, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 21 September 1894 — Work of White Ants. [ARTICLE]

Work of White Ants.

The pyramids of the white ants are a characteristic feature of the African landscape. The builders of these structures are not ants, but belong to the smaller family of termites. There is scarce y an insect so thoroughly hated by man as the termites, and the hatred is fully justified. They gnaw ever.i thing; the balconies and po.-ts of the houses, tab!es. chairs, wardroles, books, cloth, leather; in fact, little comes amiss to them except iron. The evidences of the destructive labors of the te. mites are to be seen on every side; but the creaturas themselves are rarely seen. They steal sneakingly to their labors. They are all blind, with the exception of the king and queen, and all def nseless except the soldier caste, which constitutes about one or two per cent, of the population. To escape starvation they must leave their subterranean homos or pyramids in search of dead wood, and, becau o of their blindness.they render themselves invisible as the best mode of defense. By mea s of small dry tubes, constructed with infinite labor, and guarded by the soldier termites from hostile insects, they reach the timber to bo operated upon. These tubular passages are about the diameter of a small gas pipe, and are frequently carried in a zigzag course by the termites up the trunk ot a tree in their search for a dry branch. One may travel for hours and not find a single tree without one of these passages.