Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 48.djvu/726

654 flocks and herds of scale insects on the under surfaces of the leaves. For months their live stock has consisted mainly of hard scale insects; now they are busy fostering the young of these and bringing forward species of a softer nature. Some of these stockbreeders build their small nests about the roots of plants and thus escape the flood, while those who nest in the bushes seem to have gone a step further in their development.

At this time also the small black ants are everywhere. They come into the rooms and get upon our dining table, even though its legs are placed in pans of kerosene oil. A chair will provide a suitable gangway, or they will even run over your clothes as you sit at dinner. They even get into our beds, and we wake up at night to find hundreds of these tiny creatures crawling over us and giving vicious bites here and there. Then the baby cries in the next room, and its nurse wakes up to find the little pests running over its face and sucking the moisture from its eyelids. The child wakes up and rubs the part with his fist, to be rewarded with sundry bites on his delicate skin. Or perhaps one of them has got into his ear, and the child screams with all his might; then the mother or nurse has much ado with a syringe and oil before silence is again restored.

Now come the cockroaches. Not that they have ever been entirely wanting, but as long as the weather was dry they could hide under heaps of dead leaves or about the roots of trees in the garden. Routed from these snug quarters, they appear in great numbers, flying into the open sitting rooms, and perhaps making a lady scream out with disgust as one of them sprawls on her dress. Their object is to hide themselves as soon as possible, no matter where, and female drapery is very convenient. Like the ants, these stinking creatures invade our bedrooms, and a newcomer is warned not to sleep with his mouth open, for he might wake to find one exploring the cavity. Those who have lived in the tropics for any length of time can hardly escape tasting the cockroach. Now and then they run over our dishes and leave their taste and smell behind, while occasionally one gets into the flour barrel and spoils your cake or pudding. We have seen bits of their carcasses in our bread, and have had to reject a roll altogether from such a cause.

Now that the ground is well soaked, the wood ants or termites begin to swarm. They fly for a little while, but quickly get rid of their wings, to crawl into the chinks and crannies of the floor, between the covers of books, and in fact everywhere. They litter the tables with their cast-ofl wings, and if not looked after will do serious damage in a few days. Furniture is bored with holes, books are excavated to provide nests, and the very house itself becomes ultimately little more than a home for wood ants. The