REPORT OF THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 501 



REMEDIES FOR THE BITES. 



A iinmber of remedies to counteract the poison of the Buffalo Gnats 

 have been tried, but none of them have been suflB.ciently tested or 

 have proved uniformly effective. 



Dr. Warren King, of Vicksburg, Miss., recommends rubbing_ the 

 affected animals thoroughly with water of ammonia, and adminis- 

 tering internally a mixture of 40 to 50 grains of carbonate of ammonia 

 to 1 pint of whisky, repeating the dose every three or four hours 

 until relieved. He claims to have never lost an animal under this 

 treatment, although they were sometimes apparently beyond recovery. 

 This remedy is not generally known, but certainly contains sufficient 

 merit to warrant a thorough and careful trial. 



Some planters claim to have cured their stock simply by continued 

 doses of whisky alone and by keeping the sick animal in cool and 

 darkened stables. 



Blood-letting is also recommended, both as a preventive and as a 

 cure, but may be considered as of very doubtful utility, except in 

 cases where heroic treatment is required. Mules badly injured and 

 in a dying condition are bled until the blood, which at first is nearly 

 black, appears of a natural color again. 



Dying animals have frequently been saved by immersion in the 

 cold water of running streams. Evidently all these remedies have 

 a tendency to allay the fever produced by incipient blood-poisoning. 



ATTACKING MAN. 



A number of cases have from time to time been reported by various 

 newspapers in the infested region of human beings being killed by 

 these insects. Inquiry has sometimes failed to prove the truth of 

 such reports; yet sufficient facts are on record to show that if the 

 gnats attack a person suddenly in large swarms and find him unpre- 

 pared or far away from any shelter they may cause death. 



Dr. Bromby, in Madison Parish, La., had a case of death caused, 

 he believes, by the gnats. A Mrs. Breeme, having lost, in the spring 

 of 1883, 17 mules of her stock, was suddenly taken sick. She told 

 the doctor that she had been bitten by mosquitoes. She died in great 

 agony from blood-poisoning. 



In 1884 several persons were killed by Buffalo Gnats. Mr. H. A. 

 Winter, from near Helena, Ark. , while -on a hunting trip, was at- 

 tacked by them one and a half miles from home, while passing some 

 low ground; Running towards a house, he was seen to fall dead. All 

 exposed parts of his body had turned black. Another man was killed 

 near Wynne Station, Arkansas, on the Iron Mountain Railroad. 



DAMAGE DONE IN VARIOUS YEARS. 



The damage occasioned by Buffalo Gnats throughout the infested 

 region cannot be estimated, owing to the fact that no statistics have 

 ever been collected in a systematic manner. But the loss in certain 

 localities has been immense, and greatest when the insects appeared 

 in the very early spring. Of late years the losses have increased be- 

 cause the country has become more densely settled and not because 

 the bite of the gnats has become more dangerous. The following 

 statements are based on reports from reliable individuals and from 

 records in local papers examined by Mr. Lugger; 



