POSSIBILITIES AND COSTS. 61 



be found an excellent remedy. If plenty of rapidly run- 

 ning water can be forced into these places and cause them 

 to overflow into main waterways, the Culicids will be de- 

 voured by minnows and other small fish to a great extent. 

 For this purpose we would recommend windmills. The 

 farmer or neighborhood Avhicli is annoyed by the prox- 

 imity of a mosquito rendezvous can, by means of a wind- 

 mill pump the stagnant pools into the stream, or, if there 

 be no nearby running water, the pools or marsh can be 

 drained to one point by digging a small pool at a lower 

 level. From this the water can be pumped and thrown 

 back upon the land. In this way a circulation of rapidly 

 moving water may be maintained, and in it Culex cannot 

 live. In addition to ridding the neighborhood of mos- 

 quitoes, this plan will also purify the atmosphere of much 

 of the miasmatic influences which arise from swamps and 

 stagnant bodies of water. 



Where the area of mosquito breeding territory is large, 

 it will be necessary to drain on a large scale. When the 

 infested ponds are near the sea, the waves may be made to 

 communicate their resistless power to a large float, the ris- 

 ing and falling of which will set in motion the plunger of 

 a mammoth pump. Very many swampy tracts may be 

 filled in with earth. If this is done systematically in 

 connection with these other methods, many a neighbor- 

 hood now almost uninhabitable will find a rising market. 



In the imago state, Culex is much more difficult to 

 reach with destructive agents. To prevent mosquitoes from 

 biting, various washes and decoctions have been well tried. 

 Quassia water and oil of pennyroyal arc strongly recom- 

 mended. Outside of houses at night time the principal ene- 

 mies of Culex are probably night hawks, whippoorwills. 



