INVADED BY ANTS

Evening Star, Issue 18394, 1 October 1923, Page 8

INVADED BY ANTS

MARCH OF RED FURIES.

INSECTS BY THE MILLION,

As the African continent becomes more and more open to the influences of civilisation the problem of tho insects presents itself more and more, acutely, for it is only insects which dispute with man tiie possession of (ho earth. Wo know how the tsetse fly keeps whole districts uninhabited by man or beast, and in some parts invading armies of ants drive away or destroy almost all other living creatures. The domination of ants in some parts of Africa is shown in a remarkably vivid account of an invasion of red imts in Tanganyika Territory, written by Mr Arthur Loveridgo in tho Transactions of the Entomological Society.

The amazing behaviour of these tiny creatures, which seem to act as if they had sho brains and genius of human beings, lias often been described by other observers, but never more graphically than by Mr Loveridgo. Perhaps never before lias an invasion of ants been so closely watched ami so minutely recorded. It was at 8 o’clock one morning that Mr Loveridgo first discovered tho red driver ants entering tho stonework base of his house at Kiiosa. They wero entering at half a dozen points, and were already up tho door plinth and under the roof at one spot. Beetles wero flying before the advancing host, frequently with ono or moro red furies attached to their hind legs like leeches; crickets and grasshoppers wero being dragged off; and jumping spiders made prodigious leaps in their frantic efforts to escape the terrible foe.

Curiously enough, one black carabid beetle, clinging to the tablecloth, was passed unnoticed by tho advancing ants, which are quite sightless and chase their prey only by means of scout. Tho driver ants’ domain is a country of the blind, SENTRIES ON GUARD.

Soldier-sentries were stationed at intervals of 2in along the marching lines, waiting will) tho forepart of the body raised and widely-open jaws for any enemies that might come their way. All tho morning the marching hordes pressed forward like the German armies entering Belgium. They wero out for flesh and blood, and did' not touch jarq, sugar, or anything sweet. Tho black stink ants, Ik long, waged a guerrilla warfare with the red driver ants, and it took at least three red ants to match a single black one._ When a column of red ants was entering a hole k the wall, near which was a second hole leading into tho ground, a black ant was seen to come from this second hole and seize a red ant by his jaws, _ haul _ him from his comrades, and drag him quickly down into tho hole. FRIENDS OR FOES ?

Mr Loveridgo was glad to get his house cleared of undesirable insects and vermin that had long infested it, and to this extent he regarded the rod driver ants as friends; but as the invasion continued, and ever fresh hordes arrived, he began to get alarmed as to whether they might not take up their permanent abode on his premises. To discourage them _ he stuffed paper soaked in prussic acid into the holes they were entering, and swept back the columns into heaps and -cremated them in paraffin and grass fires. Then, congratulating himself on having punished the invaders so severely that the survivors would leave tho locality, he

settled down to read. But about 9 o’clock in the evening ho became conscious of many small noises, making altogether quite a volume of suppressed sound, ami, taking up the light and going into liis bedroom, he found tho whitewashed walls a moving mass of red ants. I hey overran tho furniture, and the sound lie had heard was the marching of their myriad feet. Almost every minute some insect would fall from tho ceiling, with several ants clinging to it, to be poumced upon by others on tho floor and devoured. THE MOVING COLUMNS. Tiiis invasion of the bedroom was rather appalling; and it became necessary for Mr Loveridgo to keep marking time in order to prevent the ants getting on his slippers and climbing his legs. Ho placed the four legs of his bedstead under the mosquito net in four basins of water, and retired, hoping to bo safe inside the net, His rest was disturbed by tho squeaki of rats and bats as they were attacked, and by the offensive odor of plant bugs as they were dismembered by (he ants. Pieces of whitewash or grit were falling from (bo ceiling, dislodged by myriads of ants working along the spaces between tho ceiling boards like ferrets searching for rabbits. All night and the next day the ants kept on the move. More and more and more arrived. Those on tho walls descended and formed regular moving columns on the floor. Mr Loveridgo and his boys swept them up by I lie thousands, placing shovelful after shovelful_jnto vessels containing water' and paraffin, where they died instantly. After a time the floor was cleared. A CROCODILE ATTACKED Blit at sunset columns of unta again began to c-orno out of a hole at the bottom of the wall, and by B o’clock a b'ftfg stream, six or eight ants wide, was going up the verandah wall and entering beneath the roof. Their track was visible as a continuous brown streak on the wall. That night Mr Loveridgo had to leave Ills bouse and sleep in another building some distance away, for the ants invaded not only his room, but his bed. The next day Mr I/iveridgo mid his boys again cleared the bedroom, and put. round the bod netting of a finer mesh. That night the ants name to the ceiling and dropped on to tit' net. The walls and floor became a crawling mass. In the early hours of the morning Mr Loveridgo was awakened by the frantic splashing of one of his pet crocodiles outside tho house, and, turning up the light, lie found the ants on bis lied, 'they bad not dropped from the coiling, but had thrown a living bridge across the water in each basin, so that their comrades could ecfss and climb the logs of the bedstead. THE PASSING OF THE ARMY. Going out to the crocodile, Air Loveridge found it floundering frantically, coverod with ants. Ho it and cleared it of the in sects,_ but it took several days to recover its _ health. A second crocodile had bean killed by the ants, and also a chameleon, together with many rats, bats, and geckos. For two more days the war against the invaders continued, and then by five and paraffin thev were driven from the house. But at night Air Loveridge from bis verandah could hear their tramping* or rustling over the ground as Lie vast army travelled in column form 50ft away. Tho easy wav would have been to fira tho grass and burn them up, but tills was too dangerous, as there were growing crops close by, and the grass for miles was like tindor. It is easier to start a- bush fire than to stop it.

Eventually, after five days, the terrible invaders passed from the district, to scatter terror and destruction in tome other place. This army must have contained more anta than there are people in the world.