ANTS IN AMSTERDAM Apart from entomologists, I don't 'think many
people bother about the life of ants in winter. It is rather out of season now to offer advice on dealing with invasions of ants but, to show that the trouble is not purely a national one. I quote a Dutch correspondent who lives in Amsterdam and writes: 'When I came to live at the present address eight years ago, the kitchen was overrun by ants as well as enormous, slimy red slugs. The municipal service dealing with pests of all
kinds gave me the follnwing advice: Against ants, mix one-third icing sugar, one-third sulphur powder and one-third borax powder and spread this over all floor openings—joints, holes, etc. The ants disappeare4 overnight and did not come back until last summer during my prolonged absence. The samemixture again made them disappear at once, whereas spray- ing only helped temporarily (I came back on a Saturday night and could not get the ingredients for the mixture until Monday morning). Against the slugs I spread creosote, undiluted, with a brush, along all the seams and cracks out of which the slugs used to emerge. This I had to repeat three times at night, after which I have never seen then"' again.'
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