GLAD tidings of great joy" to the mos quito-ridden household and com munity! Excepting the salt water variety, every species of the buzzing, bit ing pest can be exterminated by individ ual or local effort, with comparatively slight expense of time and money. In the early days of mosquito study, L. O. Howard, now Chief Entomologist of the Federal Government,visited a fam ily summering in the Catskill mountains. Mosquitoes were so numerous as to make life almost unbearable to any one ven turing off the screened-in porch after nightfall. Under the porch Mr. Howard found a rain water tank from which wa ter was drawn off, as required, by means of a spigot at the bottom. The tank lit erally swarmed with mosquito larvx or "wigglers." Over the surface of the water the entomologist poured a pint of kerosene. This, forming in an unbroken film, the wigglers were divorced from their air supply and speedily died. There was no other body of still water any where near the house. The winged mos quito will not go near kerosene, and so the female no longer had a place in which to deposit her boat-shaped batch of eggs, three to four hundred in number. Re sult, before the year was a month older, the mosquito had perished practically from off the face of the earth, as far as this particular household was concerned. It was in the summer of 1901 that the question and methods of mosquito ex termination first came prominently before the public. The mayor of the little city of Winchester, Va., at that time was N. T. Barton. Mr. Barton's fad was ento mology. About the time that he had be come deeply interested in the scientists' warfare on the mosquito the mayor was visited by an out-of-town friend. The latter complained loudly against the Win chester mosquitoes and exhibited his son as evidence of their bloodthirstiness. This determined the mayor to wage a little war all his own 011 the mosquitoes, that the fair name of Winchester would not be sullied by strangers' reports of the fero ciousness of the pest. In the face of harsh newspaper criti cism and sarcasm, he got the Council to pass an ordinance authorizing the appli cation of kerosene in the city limits, wherever stagnant water would be found. Then he saw to it that the city was thor oughly oiled. The result was so unsatis factory—to the mosquitoes—that the Council did not hesitate to amend the original ordinance by providing a pen alty, to be imposed on any citizen who failed to apply kerosene in the necessary places on his property. An inspector was also authorized for the enforcement of the ordinance. Long before the summer was over Winchester had been practically freed from mosquitoes, and the citizens had taken down their nets and screens, a thing they had previously studiously "PICTORI AL.COLOR AND /MAGAZINE SECTION" The Cameron County Press. EMPORIUM, FA., AUGUST 30, 1906. - » ' t ' • •' refrained from doing until the advent of cold weather. THE MOSQUITO A "HOME BODY." The secret of success of individual or communal warfare on the mosquito lies in the scientifically proved fact that the mosquito invariably lives, buzzes and bites very near the place of its birth, un less, of course, it is carried away by a strong wind. (I should say, the place of her birth, for only the female sucks blood; the male is a strict vegetarian.) Therefore, in order to wage a successful war of extermination on the mosquito, it is necessary only to discover the breed ing place or places—always standing or stagnant water —and to remove them en tirely either by draining and then filling in the depressions, or, if that is impos sible, or impracticable, by coating the sur face of the water with kerosene. Right here let it be known that the search for stagnant water must be thor ough, if relief from mosquitoes is to be obtained. They breed in the most unsus pected places—in old tin cans, rain-filled hollows of trees well up from the ground, crotches of trees and hollow stumps, broken bottles, hidden by grass or top ping stone walls as ornament; pitchers of the pitcher plant, closed sewers, the female entering and leaving through the perforated traps; flower vases in which the water is not changed daily, jars of water insulating the legs of refrigerators, roof leaders that are not properly graded. Obvious breeding places are uncovered rain-water barrels, open cisterns and wells, the pits of outdoor water closets, ground depressions, unused household water receptacles, still water along the edges of streams, pools formed by under brush, pools fed by springs, water along the edges of swamps and in the swamps, watering troughs infrequently used, and the pools formed underneath by drip pings. In brief, the varieties of mosquito that give the greatest trouble—barring the salt water genus—will breed anywhere in anything holding standing or stagnant water. These varieties are the culex pun gens, or inland mosquito, the most com mon of all the two hundred odd species; the stegomyia, or yellow fever bearing mosquito, which is found pretty generally over the south; and the anopheles, or malaria bearing mosquito, whose habitat is the greater part of America. It is the inland mosquito that gener ally breeds in or near a house, and owing to this trait, it is often called the house mosquito. The more offensive the water the more prolific this species. This js also true of the stegomyia. The anopheles prefers to breed in small pools of uncon taminated water, but which are frequently covered with green scum. The edges of swamps, ground depressions and spring fed pools are favored breeding places. So, also, are unused receptacles about a house; but, unlike the culex pungens, the anopheles rarely enters a house. HOW TO APPLY KEROSENE. The best way to apply kerosene is with a garden sprinkling pot, after the open ings in the nozzle have been enlarged somewhat. One pint of oil to a water surface twenty feet in diameter is the ac cepted proportion. An application will suffice for about two weeks, when it should be repeated. The method by which the oil destroys the larvse (wigglers) is not toxic, but me chanical. A larva must come to the sur face every minute or two for air. The inland larvie approaches the surface at right angles and gets its air by sticking its tail, equipped with an air tube, above water. The anopheles larva lies parallel to the water surface and secures air by putting its head above water. In what ever way a larva obtains air the oil ob structs its delicate respiratory apparatus and rapid suffocation results. An un broken oil film will bring death to all the larvae in a given body of water in a few hours. Care should be taken to keep the oil film continuous. Kerosene tends to collect around water grass, logs and other foreign bodies in a pond, for ex ample. Thus spaces of water surface more or less extensive are left without an oil covering, and the breeding of mos quitoes goes on apace; the time from egg to winged mosquito varies from twelve to twenty-five days, according to the species. By removing grasses and all other ob structions from a body of water an un broken oil film can be obtained. The edges of streams, springs and ponds should also be kept clean, as the presence of logs and grass tends to standing wa ter, in the shape of little pools, and in these the female anopheles delights to de posit her eggs. Among the very few bodies of water about a house that can not conveniently be treated with kerosene are cisterns. These, however, as well as open wells, can be screened, and in this way kept from the mosquito. If you are averse to putting oil on the water in rain water barrels, fit them with tight covers, with screened holes in the center for air, and draw out the water from the bottom by means of a spigot. There is no need to put oil in a wa tering trough in daily use. The animals' noses, if nothing else, keep the water well stirred up, and it is an entomologically proved fact that if standing water, in which there are mosquito larvce, is stirred , the larva; will die in a short time as a result of the commotion. Still cjr str gnant water, from the moment the ( , fl BT S are laid until the winged insects : at hand, is absolutely necessary to the velopment of mosquitoes. Egg, larva, f)u pas, then, in two or three days, winged jsquito—these are the four stages of JSquito development. The cost of mosquito extermination is fling of itself; and it sinks into utter j n significance when compared with the Uefits resulting therefrom. Several miners ago a certain Maryland village l is laid low, almost to a man, with ma- I "ia. The following summer forty dol :s was spent in draining the breeding pj ice of the anopheles, and only one case malaria was reported all summer. The esence of mosquitoes has prevented jny a region from developing as it lerwise would probably have developed, at least given it an unsavory reputa >ll; while, conversely, other sections , .ve prospered because of, or are famed . r, freedom from the pest. What did i mean to Havana, New Orleans, the panama Canal zone, when the stegomyia ps exterminated? Yellow fever disap ared. Less and less malaria is appear- j n g among our canal diggers as the ceding places of anopheles are becom- j n g fewer through the sanitary work of ajor Gorgas. And in one year a goodly irtion of Staten Island, long notorious pc j- r its mosquitoes, has secured the repu ( i lion of being practically free of the st. Who can prophecy what effect this w state of things will have on the tens n< thousands of home buyers in Greater yew York? Whatever the variety of mosquito, sci ice has pointed out a sure way to exter inate it. And science says, and has IT | . roved it, too, that the best way to be p: i % . td of one hundred and ninety-nine va ! eties is for each individual and com r> . . unity to wage war on the mosquitoes k pthering him and it by draining, filling . I and oiling, n f ! The mosquito-less age is dawning.
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers