MOSQUITO CONTKOL TESTS FKOM THE ARCTIC TO THE 



TROPICS 



By H. H. Stage 



Bureau of Entomology and Plant Quarantine, Agricultural Research 

 Administration, U. 8. Department of Agriculture 



[With 8 plates] 



Mosquitoes long ago put into practice a political theory publicized 

 within recent years by the late Wendell Willkie. "One World," to 

 these annoying pests and carriers of disease, has been and continues to 

 be a reality. Not all of them, by any means, live here with us in the 

 North Temperate Zone. In swarms they attack man and beast north 

 of the Arctic Circle, and in myriads they inflict suffering and illness 

 on inhabitants of the Tropics. The tropical diseases they carry include 

 malaria, dengue, yellow fever, filariasis, and encephalitis. 



Soon after we entered World War II our Army and Navy found 

 mosquitoes a formidable enemy. The battle front on which they 

 encountered these creatures was a long one ; in the far North mosqui- 

 toes prevented rest and hindered outdoor activities, and on the Equator 

 indirectly caused the loss of many thousands of man-days by trans- 

 mitting disease. Few American entomologists had conducted mos- 

 quito surveys in either of these far-away zones, and few of us knew 

 anything about their habits in foreign lands. Our military forces 

 sorely needed an effective means of repelling mosquitoes. They needed 

 also a modern, effective method of destroying mosquito adults and 

 larvae over large areas under a wide variety of conditions. Several 

 hundred species of mosquitoes were involved, varying widely in their 

 bionomics. '''^- i 



In 1942, at the request of the office of the Surgeon General, United 

 States Army, and with funds provided to the Bureau of Entomology 

 and Plant Quarantine by the Office of Scientific Research of the Na- 

 tional Emergency Council, entomologists at our laboratory in Orlando, 

 Fla., began a long series of tests to develop effective mosquito repel- 

 lents. Hundreds of new and old chemicals were sent to Orlando by 

 chemical companies, from all parts of the United States. Within a 

 few months several materials, having shown promise in the laboratory, 

 were recommended for field tests. . 



TESTING MOSQUITO REPELLENTS IN THE ARCTIC 



Late in June 1943 Terris Moore, of the Office of the Quartermaster 

 General, United States Army, and I were detailed for a few weeks to 



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