The ice dealers all over the country are threatened with ruin. The gaunt form of the wolf is at their door, and it is only at question of time how long they will be able to hold out against the ravages of a new-discovered insect which eats ice with as much facility and enjoyment as a boy does candy. This is startling on its face, and at once accounts for the high prices householders have been paying this summer for the congealed article, although it was a well-known fact that a rather fair crop was gathered last winter. The ice men have had a knowledge of the presence of this new enemy among them since April, 1878, when a steamer of the Red Star line happened to strike an iceberg in mid-ocean, and some of these newfangled worms or ice chewers, clung to it and were carried to this country, where they have rapidly multiplied.
    A well-known scientist, Dr. Otto Hechelmeyer, says that these worms were clasified by scientific men under the name—the worms, not the men—of nematoxis eocena. When a worm with such a name as this gets after a block of ice, there is no hope for it, of course. Prof Pintori, of the Smithsonian institution, has been looking into the history of this terrible worm, and he has discovered that it is the caterpillar of an insect which he calls the vespa eocena, but which he allows plain, unlearned people to call the ice wasp. It seems that these ice worms abound up in the Arctic regions, where they are busily engaged in clearing a passage to the north pole, and the professor thinks that in the course of from two hundred and thirty to two hundred and fifty years more they will have so thoroughly gnawed away the ice in that region that a trip to the pole will become simply a pleasant summer excursion. The formation of iceberge has hitherto been something of a puzzle to most people who could not understand why these great frozen monsters should break away from their native moorings and go cruising around the ocean until they get down south and are thawed out of existence. But Prsf. Pintori and Dr. Hechelmeyer make this us plain as mud. The deadly nematoris eocena sets his jaws at work upon the Arctic glaciers and cuts off these big icebergs just as readily as a butcher cuts off the head of a hog. The destroyer’s work does not end here. He follows the fated iceberg and, bit by bit, gnaws off the bottom of it until it becomes top-heavy and lurches over; then he whittles down the top until it rights itself again, and so systematically and relentlessly pursues this course that the poor, harressed berge eventually succumbs to the appetite of the gorged monster, and entirely disappears within its capacious maw.
    The nematoxis eocena, or ice fiend, is a peculiar worm, about six inches in length. It is almost transparent and can conceal itself in a block of ice readily. Careless housemaids are apt not to notice its presence when cleaning the morning lump preparatory to placing it in the cooler or refrigerator. It is through the ravages of these worms that the ice melts so quickly, and persons are apt to ascribe it to a defective manufacture of the ice-chest or to careless wrapping of the frigid lump.
    Several of these ice wasps have been secured at the house of one of the largest companies in this city, and they were sent to Dr. W. S. Ruschenberger, of the Academy of Natural Sciences, with a request that he furnish a statement of their habits and suggest a method for getting rid of them. Their bite is said to be poisonous, and when in the transition state from worm to insect they are to be feared. Unless some means are taken to rid the country of these terrible nuisances, the ice crop may go short this season, or be totally destroyed next winter.
    Prof. Pintori suggests a plan to get rid of these pests. He says the wasps do not get in their work until after the ice crop is harvested and stored away, and they cannot stand the smell of burning charcoal. He therefore recommends that, after an ice house has been filled, it be surrounded by a ring of charcoal fires, which must be kept continuously burning until the next crop of ice is ready to be harvested.
    For refrigerators and ice-boxes the professor has another plan. The ice wasps are particularly fond of molasses and if they find any of this saccharine material in their way, they will stop for a little taste of it before proceeding to business. He therefore recommends that the ton of the box or refrigerator be smeared with molasses. The unsuspecting insect will alight to taste and get his feet smeared with the syrupy substance. It then resorts to the ice, but before it has time to bore a hole in which to deposit its eggs, its sticky feet freeze fast. Is is thus rendered helpless, and the ice is saved.—Philadelphia Record.

From— The Canton advocate. (Canton, D.T. [S.D.]), 08 Sept. 1881. Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers. Lib. of Congress.