DESTROYING AND REPELLING MOSQUITOES 97 



in folds and is not too low and close to the sleeper, there 

 is little air excluded. The prejudice against bed nets 

 and window screens, because they are thought to exclude 

 a great deal of air, is unfortunate and unfounded. Nets 

 and screens are coming into common use everywhere, 

 especially in the South. The author has slept under a net 

 nine months in the year and the feeling of security it 

 gives is most satisfactory. 



There are several essentials to success in the use of a 

 good bed net. First it must be free from rents, small as 

 well as large, and long enough to reach the floor on all 

 sides of the bed. Some prefer a short net tucked under 

 the mattress. This is good if the tucking is well done, 

 but too often the net is carelessly arranged and then 

 serves only as a trap. Do not have a net that opens up 

 and down the side. Such a net cannot be made tight 

 enough (except with very great pains) to keep out 

 mosquitoes. 



Really, a bobbinet bar reaching the floor on all sides 

 of the bed is the only satisfactory net. Care should be 

 taken not to allow mosquitoes to enter the net with the 

 sleeper. The edge of the net must not catch on the 

 bed rail or cover and remain off the floor during the 

 night. 



A net is not only useful and necessary at home, but it 

 is indispensable when traveling. Hotels, especially those 

 in country towns, often have no mosquito bars on their 

 beds. Hotels are to be dreaded because the very room 

 occupied to-night may have been occupied a few nights 

 previous by a malarious person. If so, the malarial 

 mosquitoes present in the room are liable to be teeming 

 with the malarial germ and the unsuspecting sleeper will 



