MOSQUITOES. 



191 



into 302x32=9,664 mosquitoes. Total number of eggs, 

 larvae and pupse, 17,259. July 22d, 1896, by a similar pro- 

 cess, 19,110 mosquitoes were counted. At the present time 

 (Sept.) not so many eggs are deposited, but there are still 

 immense numbers of immature insects in pools and ditches 

 and other suitable breeding-places. 



It is assuredly not a good thing to breed mosquitoes 

 near our houses. To prevent them from doing so all that is 



Fig. 155. — Mosquito, female. Greatly enlarged. Original. 



necessary is to shut them off from a supply of air and there 

 is an exceedingly simple and cheap way of doing it most 

 effectually. Many trials have shown that by pouring just 

 one or two spoonfuls of kerosene-oil upon the water in rain- 

 barrels, and by stirring the water so that the surface is 

 equally covered with a film of oil, all eggs, larvfe, and pupae 

 die by suffocation within five minutes. This is surely a sim- 

 ple way of killirig multitudes of such insects, and as the oil 

 will evaporate very soon, the water is by no means spoiled. 

 If done very early in the season, and repeated every four- 



