MOSQUITO CONTROL TESTS — STAGE 353 



Invariably, the culprits belonged to the genus Aedes. They repre- 

 sented three species, A. cafaphylla Dyar, A. nearcticus Dyar, and A. 

 excrucians (Walk.). We found no convincing evidence that one of 

 these species was more difficult to repel than the others. 



Preliminary information was obtained on the attractiveness or 

 repellency of color to mosquitoes. On a bright, moderately warm 

 day when the temperature was in the high 70's, we asked the soldiers 

 to wear black, white, and tan (OD #3) shirts. While they stood in a 

 row we counted the mosquitoes landing on certain areas on the backs 

 of the shirts every 30 seconds for 20 minutes. The shirts were also 

 rotated on the several men. Two volunteers bared their backs for 

 short periods from time to time. Each 30 seconds, on an average, 4 

 mosquitoes landed on a white shirt, 15 on a black shirt, 31 on a tan 

 (OD #3) shirt, and 97 on a bare back. Thus it appeared that color 

 is of considerable importance in influencing the number of mosquitoes 

 naturally alighting on a man's shirt-clothed back, nearly 8 times as 

 many alighting on the tan shirt as on a pure white one. 



TO ALASKA IN 1944 



So far as was compatible with the exigencies of war, the office of 

 the Surgeon General, United States Army, wanted to get information 

 on the species of mosquitoes in the Territory of Alaska, their relative 

 abundance, and the locations where they were and were not important. 

 On July 5, 1944, I flew from Seattle to Alaska, and during the re- 

 mainder of that summer I covered about 8,500 miles by air and 600 

 miles by automobile in an effort to obtain such information. Again, 

 the data obtained were decidedly preliminary; even so, we made the 

 first record of the fact that mosquitoes are not a pest on Kodiak Island 

 or on the islands of the Aleutian chain. I encountered swarms of 

 several species of mosquitoes in the vicinity of Nome, although the 

 National Museum had but one previous record of mosquitoes from that 

 northern village (IG). Flying north of the Arctic Circle, I found 

 hordes of a group of species different from that common 300 or 400 

 miles south (11). Inland for 200 miles over the American Kange 

 northeast of Nome the species were predominantly different than those 

 along the coast in the vicinity of Nome. They also appeared 3 or 4 

 weeks later than the Nome species. On entering the 4-passenger plane 

 to return to Nome from the American River country, we found that 

 literally thousands of mosquitoes had entered the plane while we 

 were on the ground. I was disturbed, because I had not brought an 

 aerosol bomb along. Imagine my relief when the pilot reached into 

 a box and pulled one out. The Army had learned the value of these 

 dispensers of insecticides and was using them in far corners of the 

 world. 



