Jasper County Democrat, Volume 19, Number 1, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 1 April 1916 — Kill Ants With Cannon. [ARTICLE]

Kill Ants With Cannon.

It is hard to imagine big guns killing anything except men and horbes. In South Africa and* other tropical countries, however, they are i’ c,n d to kill ants—the termites, or w.-rior ants. These ants are as highly organized as the Huns. They live in a republic of their own, and are divided into classes of workmen, soldiers and queens. The workmen construct the huge nests, the soldiers defend them and keep order, and the females, or omens, are cared for by all the Others. : < ' The ant heaps of these particular anis are often 20 feet high and pyramidal in shape. Cattle .climb upon them without crushing them. A dozen men can find shelter in some of their chambers, and native hunters often lie in wait inside them when out after wild animals—after the nests have been deserted, of course. The ants construct galleries which to'e as. wide as the • bore of a large cannon, and which run three or four feet under ground. If we built houses as big in proportion a workingman, would live in a dwelling as big as a. pyramid of Egypt. These ants are frightfully destruev. and the only way to kill them off is to blow' them and their nests, to pieces with guns loaded with grapeshot.—Toronto Mail and Empire. Buy envelopes at The Democrat office. A large number of sizes, styles and colors, both bond and plain finish, to select from, at 5c per bunch of 25. Call in and see them.