2 INTRODUCTION 



The towns of the Suez Canal have been cleared 

 of all kinds of mosquitos. At Port Said, the 

 commonest species found before work was started 

 were Culex fatigans and Stegomyia calopus. These 

 are perhaps the common varieties of domestic 

 mosquitos, and it is these which will be specially 

 considered in this book. In most towns and villages 

 in warm climates domestic mosquitos abound ; but 

 when such towns are not also afflicted with the 

 malaria-conveying Anophelines, it is often thought 

 not worth the necessary expenditure to institute a 

 municipal campaign against the others. The experi- 

 ence gained at Port Said shows that this is a fallacy. 

 It is most important, and indeed absolutely neces- 

 sary, to reduce and to abolish, if possible, the mos- 

 quitos that breed in and near houses in towns as well 

 as the more rural sylvan species that carry malaria. 



The following pages, therefore, deal entirely with 

 the reduction of the genera Culex and Stegomyia ; 

 but measures against them will also be efficacious in 

 ridding the town of Anophelines which happen to be 

 breeding within its precincts. This was found to be 

 the case at Port Said though the campaign there 

 was originally started against the domestic species 

 only ; the presence of Anophelines in that town was 

 discovered afterwards. 



By the ancient historians domestic mosquitos 

 were considered a great pest ; for mosquito nets were 

 used by the Romans and Ancient Greeks. Professor 

 Ross, in his book "The Prevention of Malaria," 

 writes : 



