MOSQUITO TRAPS 377 



mediately or after the lapse of a day or so. The most satisfactory remedy known 

 to the writer from his own personal experience has been moist soap. Wet the end 

 of a piece of ordinary toilet soap and rub it gently on the puncture and speedily 

 the irritation will pass away. Mr. Charles Stevenson, of Montreal, writing to 

 the Canadian Entomologist in September, 1901, stated that he had found 

 naphthalene mothballs to afford immediate relief from the bites of dangerous 

 diptera including mosquitoes and that a friend of his had used it successfully 

 on flea bites. He advises rubbing the mothball on the affected part for a few 

 minutes. Naphthalene is also recommended by Prof. Boges, Director of the 

 National Board of Health at Buenos Ayres. 



Iodine is frequently recommended for this purpose, and a note in a recent 

 number of the Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene recommends a modi- 

 fication in the shape of 30 to 40 grains of iodine to the ounce of saponated 

 petroleum, stating : " A few drops rubbed in a mosquito bite or wasp sting allay 

 the pain instantaneously." 



Eev. E. W. Anderson, rector of St. Thomas and St. Denis, wrote us from 

 Wando, South Carolina, some years ago, that he has often found that by holding 

 his hand to a hot lamp chimney the irritation of mosquito punctures would be 

 instantly relieved. 



APPARATUS FOR CATCHING ADULT MOSQUITOES. 



In a paper entitled " A Preliminary Account of the Biting Flies of India " 

 (Bulletin No. 7, Agricultural Research Institute, Pusa, India), Mr. H. Maxwell- 

 Lefroy, Imperial Entomologist, describes on pages 12 to 15 an apparatus which 

 he used to catch mosquitoes in his bungalow. In the U. S. Daily Consular 

 Trade Eeports, Department of Commerce and Labor, Bureau of Manufactures, 

 March 3, 1909, page 10, Consul General William H. Michael, of Calcutta, men- 

 tions this apparatus, stating it to be an invention by Mr. Lefroy. In his account, 

 however, Mr. Lefroy does not claim it as an invention of his own. 



He used a wooden box, lined with dark geen baize and having a hinged door ; 

 the trap was 12 inches long, 12 inches broad and 9 inches deep ; a small hole, 

 covered by a revolving piece of wood or metal was prepared in the top of the 

 box, and tin was placed on the floor inside. Owing to the habit of mosquitoes 

 to seek a cool, shady place in which to rest, such as a dark comer of the room, 

 or bookshelf, or something of the sort, they will enter this trap, which is put in 

 the part of the room most frequented by mosquitoes ; all other dark places being 

 rendered uninhabitable, so far as possible. Mr. Lefroy writes : " My room being 

 open to the verandah, hordes of mosquitoes come in, and as the room is lined with 

 bookshelves there are many desirable sleeping places. The trap stands in a 

 shady corner, and a large number of mosquitoes enter it when they come home in 

 the morning; the rest are usually driven out of the bookshelves either with a 

 duster or a little tobacco smoke. Finding this desirable sleeping place un- 

 touched they go in ; the door is then slammed and fastened. At the top of the 

 box is a small hole with a movable plate to close it ; through this a teaspoonf ul 

 or less of benzene is introduced and the plate put back. After a little time all 



