CONTROL OF DOMESTIC MOSQUITOES 389 



been substituted for standing water, and other churches have adopted a closed 

 font, which allows the holy water to issue through a small spigot. In still other 

 churches salt has been put in the water to prevent the breeding of mosquitoes. 



Even in the house mosquitoes breed in many places where they may be over- 

 looked. Where the water in flower vases is not frequently changed mosquitoes 

 will breed. They will breed in water pitchers in unused guest rooms. They will 

 breed in the tanks in water closets when these are not frequently in use. They 

 will breed in pipes and under stationary washstands where these are not fre- 

 quently in use, and they will issue from the sewer traps in back yards of city 

 houses during dry spells in the summer time, when sewers have not recently 

 been flushed by hea^^ rains. In warehouses and on docks they breed abundantly 

 in the fire buckets and water barrels. 



In country houses in the South, where ants are troublesome and where it is 

 the custom to insulate the legs of the tables with small cups of water, mosquitoes 

 will breed in these cups unless a small quantity of kerosene is poured in. Where 

 broken bottles are placed upon the stone wall to form a cheval-de-frise, water 

 accumulates in the bottle fragments after rains and mosquitoes will breed there. 

 Old disused wells in gardens are frequent sources of mosquito supply even where 

 apparently carefully covered, and here the nuisance is easily abated by the occa- 

 sional application of kerosene. The same thing may be said of cesspools. Cess- 

 pools are frequently covered with stone and cement, but the slightest break in 

 the cement will allow the entrance of these insects. Breeding often goes on in 

 cesspools without the cause of the abundance of mosquitoes in the neighborhood 

 being suspected. One of the writers remembers, for example, on one occasion 

 walking through a New Jersey garden and noticing a covered cesspool with a 

 slight crack in the cement. He remarked upon the danger to the proprietor of 

 the estate, who replied that mosquitoes could not possibly gain entrance to the 

 water. Later in the evening, about dusk, the same spot was passed again and a 

 cloud of mosquitoes was seen issuing from the crack so abundantly that at a 

 little distance it seemed like a stream of smoke. A little kerosene put a stop to 

 further breeding. 



Fountains and ornamental ponds are frequent breeding-places, and here the 

 introduction of fish, as indicated in another place, is usually all-sufficient. It 

 frequently happens, however, that the grass is allowed to grow down into the 

 edges of ornamental ponds and mosquito larvae find refuge among the vegeta- 

 tion and so escape the fish. Broad-leaved water plants are also often grown in 

 such ponds, and where these broad leaves lie flat upon the surface of the water, 

 as they frequently do, one portion of a given leaf may be submerged so that 

 mosquito larvae may breed freely in the water over the submerged portion of the 

 leaf, protected from fish by the leaf itself. It is necessary, therefore, to keep the 

 edges of such ornamental ponds free from vegetation and to choose aquatic 

 plants which will not afford mosquito larvae protection. In many small country 

 towns, even where there is a water supply, tanks are to be found under the roofs, 

 to supply bathrooms. Such tanks should be screened, since mosquitoes gain en- 

 trance to the tankroom, either through dormer windows or by flying up through 



