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.