ABSTRACT

Hank Jones returns to see Dr. Maven about another problem. It seems that his mother has a very special question about another pest of ‘Redneck’ tomatoes. Just when the wicked witches seem to be under control, her select crop of ‘Rednecks’ grown and sold for canning is under attack by a subspecies of the Texas leafcutting ant (

Atta

texana

[Buckley])—the tomato stem cleaver (

Atta texana severalis

[Amputeé]): “So you see, ma’am, once a gang of them ants start chewing on the stem, the tomato drops off in ’bout six hours. And it’s always a green tomato, not a ripe one. We’ve already got a fourth of the crop just laying on the ground. We can’t sell the green tomatoes, Paula Deen

can’t come up with enough recipes for the blasted things, and Momma says she’s too blamed old to put up pickled green tomatoes by the carload. Anyhow, what we need is something that’ll kill the ants in less than six hours. Can you help?”