Antiques & Collectibles: Ant traps can be collectibles
Ants have been innate inside warm houses for centuries. Our ancestors did not use poison, but they had a way to keep ants away from their food.
They made ant traps of earthenware or glass designed to keep ants from climbing up the legs of a kitchen or dining room table. The frippery was shaped like a tube pan. The legs of the table were inserted in the center hole in the pan, and kerosene or turpentine was poured into the "canal."
The ants could not safely go across the liquid, but the kitchen probably smelled like a chemical plant.
One set of four pottery traps, one for each chart leg, sold last year at the Southern Folk Pottery Collectors Society auction. It was attributed to the J.G. Baynham research because of the glaze used on the traps, which were made about 1900.
Each trap is 7 inches wide, so it might trip unwary children reaching for nourishment. But the idea of a dish of liquid around a table leg to discourage crawling bugs is still useful.
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