Leonard Haseman

“ Ants are as numerous as the stars in the skies and vary in size. They are found from the tropics to the frozen north, in deserts, swamps and in fact, almost any place where plants or animals live. They do not waste time building or manufacturing a complicated nest like wasps and bees, so when food is scare, or for other reasons they need to move they simply [126] "pack up" and migrate. This, together with the fact that they feed on almost every imaginable kind of plant and animal material, accounts in part for the fact that they are the rulers of the insect world. ”

“ Favorite breeding places of house fly. Such places should be kept as clean and neat as the front yard.
The presence of flies in the home is usually a sign of untidiness; but it means more, it means that disease and often death is hovering over the home. We are too apt to consider the fly simply as a nuisance when we should take it more seriously. The child should be led to realize that the fly should not be tolerated in the home, that it is dangerous and that it can and must be destroyed. ”

“ Collect several of the beetles and the grubs and keep them in a bottle or jelly glass. Leave them without food for a day and then give them some green plant-lice and watch them devour the lice. How many lice can one eat in a day? How do they go about devouring a louse? Do they simply suck out the blood, or is the louse completely devoured? Supposing that for each apple tree in Missouri there are one hundred lady-beetles and that each beetle devours fifteen lice in a day, does it not seem worth while protecting them and encouraging such work? ”

“ One can hardly believe that this small, ever busy creature each year gathers many million dollars worth of products for man in this country alone to say nothing of its inestimable value on the farm and especially in the orchard, where it assists in carrying pollen from blossom to blossom. It is of far greater value to man as a carrier of pollen than it is as a honey gatherer and yet under especially favorable conditions in one year a strong colony may produce between twenty-five and thirty dollars worth of honey. ”

“ The country boy and girl will have little trouble getting hold of insects, but they are often puzzled when it comes to killing them. It seems cruel [20] to pin up an insect alive and have it squirm for a day or two and some means of killing them should be devised. Most of the soft insects, such as flies, butterflies, etc., can be killed by pressing their body, in the region of the wings, between one's thumb and forefinger. Such forms as beetles and wasps can be quickly killed by dropping them into coal oil or a strong soap suds. ”

“ Whether the egg hatches before or after it is deposited, the young insect continues to develop in one of three ways. It may resemble the parent and simply grow as does a kitten, or it may look somewhat like its parent though smaller and without [9] wings, as the young grasshopper, or it may bear no resemblance whatever to the parent, as the caterpillar which feeds and grows and finally spins a cocoon [10] in which it passes to the resting chrysalis stage and later emerges with wings. The development of insects is therefore extremely complicated. ”

“ The bee colony offers one of the best examples to show what can be accomplished by united effort where harmony prevails. Certain of the workers gather honey, others are nurses for the queen and young brood in the hive, others guard the hive and repel intruders, and others care for the hive by mending breaks and providing [117] new comb as it is needed. Each knows its work and goes about it without interfering with the work of others. It is one huge assemblage of individuals under one roof where harmony and industry prevail. ”

“ In some cases ants seem to be able to plan and carry out lines of work very much the same as man does. The various stages of human intelligence or races of men from the savage to the intelligent man are in a way similar to the various races of ants. There are ants which live as hunters, others which [124] live as shepherds and still others more highly developed which grow crops either in or near the nest as is the case with the fungus growing ants. This striking similarity between the development of ants and man offers ground for much speculation. ”

“ There is a period in the life of every child when he is especially susceptible to the "call of the fields;" when he roams through woods or by shady brooks gathering flowers, fishing for mud-cats and cleaning out bumble-bees' nests. ”

“ Then, by keeping in mind the fact that the fly is comparatively harmless as long as it is kept from filth laden with germs, do away with all open closets, uncovered slop-barrels and other filth. As a further precaution keep it from the home by the use of screens and when necessary "swatters." Do not make the mistake of trying to control the pest with the "swatters" alone. In the country too often manure is permitted to accumulate about the barn during the summer with a view of using it on wheat ground in the fall and this furnishes ideal conditions for the fly to breed. ”

“ Studies and Observations
It is easy to study the out-door life of ants, but it is most difficult to follow their activities in the nest. Go into the field or out on the school grounds and watch along paths or bare spots for ants. Soon red or black fellows will be seen hurrying along after food; ants are always in a hurry when they are after food. Follow them and watch them catch and carry home small insects. If they do not find worms or other small insects, drop a small caterpillar near one of them and see what happens. Can they drag away a caterpillar as large as themselves? ”

“ In pursuing a study of nature and her creatures one should go into the woods and fields as much as possible and study them where they are found. In this way one can determine how they live together, what they feed on and the various other questions which the inquisitive mind of a healthy child will ask. When field work is not possible, gather the insects and keep them alive in jars where they can be fed and observed. ”

“ During the summer months the worms are common, being most abundant in August. In the fall the mature worms go into the ground and change from the worm to a large, oval, brown pupa with a jug-handle-like appendage on the under side. These are often turned up when the garden is plowed in the spring. After tomato plants are well started the large greyish humming-bird-like moths comes from the ground and begin laying eggs. The moth expands from four to six inches and is often seen at dusk visiting the blossoms of "jimson weed" and other large tube flowers. ”

“ The large eyes are compound, being made up of many great small units which, when magnified, resemble honey-comb. In some cases two or three small bead-like eyes may be present besides the two large eyes. The mouth parts of insects may be formed for chewing, as in the grasshopper, or for sucking up liquids, as in the mosquito. The mouth of an [6] insect is built on an entirely different plan from our own. Chewing insects have an upper and lower lip and between these there are two pairs of grinding jaws. ”

“ Throughout the long, hot summer days the workers are busy from daylight until dark gathering nectar, while at night they force currents of air thru the hive to evaporate the excess water from the nectar. When flowers are not available near the hive they simply fly until they find them, be it one, two or more miles. As long as they are able to gather honey they continue to do so and when they give out they drop in the field and are forgotten, others rushing to take their place. ”

“ In the life of every normal human there comes a time when he wishes to make a collection of some kind. It may be a collection of coins, postage stamps, post-cards, shells, relics, birds' eggs, pressed flowers or insects. If the child grows up in the country, the result of this craving is usually three or four cigar boxes of insects or an almanac or geography stuffed with the most attractive wild flowers of the field. ”

“ There is a story—a story of growth, not unlike that of the developing child, a story of courage, strife and ultimate success or failure, which is as interesting and of greater value to the child than many of the stories of adventure and of historical facts. ”

“ When the bee returns to the hive, it stores the small balls of pollen in the cells of the comb for use later in the preparation of bee-bread. When the bee is disturbed in the field does it fly away or will it sting? When it stings does it always lose its sting? What makes the sting of the bee poisonous? Examine the wings of bees in the field and note how they are torn from continued work of gathering honey. The older ones often lose so much of their wings, that they can no longer carry loads of honey. Where is the honey carried and how is it placed in the honey cells in the hive? ”

“ In later life one will [17] search in his mother's closet or attic for the old cigar boxes which contain the remains of youthful efforts, usually a mass of gaudy wings, fragments of insect legs and bodies and a few rusty pins. This desire to make a collection is natural and should be encouraged in the child. It tends to make him observe closely and creates an interest in things about him, and if properly directed it will add a store of information which can be gotten in no other way. ”

“ The dragon-fly is a beneficial insect thruout life. The young feed on mosquito wigglers and similar life in ponds and streams while the adults dart here and there over ponds, fields or lawn catching mosquitoes and other winged insects. Many look upon the dragon-fly as a dangerous stinging insect but it is entirely harmless and can be handled without the least danger. ”

“ Ants are usually more destructive by protecting and caring for other pests than by attacking the crop direct.
Every country child is familiar with ants. They are met every day during the summer, scampering across paths, tugging at some unfortunate insect, or sticking to one's tongue when he eats berries. ”

“ On maturing they begin to give birth to young lice. Throughout the summer this method of reproduction continues. These summer forms are known as the stem mothers or agamic females. These are not true females for they produce living young in place of eggs and during the summer [110] no male lice are produced at all. This is nature's way of increasing the race of plant-lice rapidly. Late in the fall again a brood of true males and females is produced. During the summer the plant-lice increase more rapidly than any other type of insect.
Plant-lice vary in size, color and general appearance. ”

“ The house fly may pass the winter either as the adult fly in cracks and crannies about the home, or in out-buildings [38] or it may remain as a hard, brown, oval pupa in stables and manure piles when, with the first warm days of spring, it escape from this case as the fly ready to lay eggs for the first colony. The fly breeds largely in horse manure either in stables, manure piles or in street gutters where manure is allowed to collect. ”

“ Every country child and many of those of the cities, are familiar with this worm for they often bite into it while eating apples. The small worms crawl down in the blossom end of the young developing apple and from there bore into the pulp and eventually reach the core of the fruit. They stay in the apple about six weeks when they eat a hole out to the surface and crawl down to the trunk where loose bark offers a hiding place. ”