Rats, Ants, Snakes

Why the uncompleted British airship R-100 was recently pulled out of her hangar at Howden, Yorkshire, was revealed last week. Rats, less cunning than those which infest but do not destroy surface ships, had invaded the hangar and threatened to eat the R-100's fabric. While the airship was safely out of doors, poison killed scores and scores of the rats.

In Honduras or any other tropical country, army ants might have been used for the rat eradication. These insects travel in regular columns and with horrifying voracity eat every living thing in their paths -insects, mice, rats, snakes, even humans. Natives welcome the ants' arrival to their homes, merely moving out until the ants eat up all the household pests and march on.

Army ants' lack of discrimination caused a small catastrophe at Tela, Honduras, a last week's despatch reported. They invaded the serpentarium there and badly chewed most of the reptiles. Only by throwing the snakes into water, which drowned some of the ants, could attendants save them. Other ants died from the kerosene and cyanogas sprayed in the building.