Ants being found so commonly around blight cankers on chestnut trees,
it has been claimed that in some instances they are responsible for as
much as 90 per cent. of blight dissemination. To obtain information on
this matter, it was decided during the winter to experiment with ants
in the greenhouse. Two rooms were set off as an insectary. The inner
of these two rooms being thoroughly sterilized, was called the sterile
room, and the outer room was called the blighted room. In the latter as
much blight material of the kind required as could be obtained was kept
and placed on the ant table, where three colonies of ants made their
homes. From the table in this room the ants were allowed to run through
a glass tube to sterile seedling trees in the sterile room. The ants
were of the same species as those suspected of carrying the blight, and
were the common mound-builders, (_Formica integra_), being obtained in
the region of Lewisburg, Union County.
The result of the experiment was that with the exception of a few dried
leaves on each tree which were chewed or worked on by the ants, the
trees in the sterile room are as healthy as when first placed on the
table to be run over by the ants. The indication, therefore, is that
ants are not responsible for blight infection.