ENTOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF ONTARIO. 59 



It is a well known fact that the adult male mosquito does not necessarily take any 

 nourishment, and that the female cannot depend upon the blood of warm-blooded animals 

 for its food. Mosquitoes undoubtedly feed normally on the juices of plants, and not one 

 in a million ever gets an opportunity to taste blood. When we think of the enormous 

 tracts of marsh land into which warm-blooded animals never penetrate, and in which 

 mosquitoes breed in countless numbers, the truth of this statement becomes apparent.* 



Bemedies. — To prevent, the annoyance of mosquitoes in houses, particularly in bed- 

 rooms, it is a good plan to burn a small quantity of pyrethrum powder, about enough to 

 cover a fifty cent piece, heaped up in the shape of a cone and lighted at the top ; this 

 will suffice for an ordinary sized bed-room. The fumes penetrate to all parts of the room 

 and stupify the insects for some time. Should they revive, the operation may be repeated. 

 Of course the door and windows should be closed for the time being in order to prevent 

 the escape of the smoke from the burning powder. A quiet night may also be secured 

 by killing all the mosquitoes that are to be found resting on the walls and ceiling of the 

 room. The latter may be reached by tacking the lid of a small tin box to the top of a 

 sufficiently long stick and putting into it a spoonful of coal oil. If this cup is shoved 

 under a mosquito on the ceiling it will at once try to escape, and in its efforts fall into 

 the coal oil and end its existence. 



A far more important matter, however, is the destruction of the larvae, or the aboli- 

 tion of their breeding-places. In our Annual Reports for 1892 and 1893, papers by Dr. 

 Howard were published in which he gave most interesting details of his experiments with 

 coal oil for the destruction of mosquito larvae. It need, therefore, only be mentioned 

 here that the method consists in pouring a thin layer of coal oil over the surface of the 

 water in which the insects are breeding. The larvae and pupae, we have seen, live almost 

 entirely at the surface of water and cannot remain beneath for more than a minute at a 

 time. The coal oil will at once fill up their breathing tubes and cause immediate death. 

 Large numbers also of the female mosquito wiil be destroyed before their eggs are laid, 

 as it has been found that the coal oil does not deter them from trying to deposit their 

 eggs on the surface of the water. This melhod, of course, can only be employed in the 

 case of pools of stagnant water of no very large dimensioas. When the breeding-place of 

 the mosquitoes is too extensive to admit of this treatment, their numbers can be kept in 

 check by the introduction of small fish into the waters. But the most fruitful places for 

 the production of these pests on a large scale are swamps and mashes. Nothing but 

 their drainage, which may prove a profitable undertaking for other purposes, will suffice 

 for a cure. Rain water barrels and similar receptacles, which are common about houses 

 in the country, produce swarms of mosquitoes during the summer and these readily find 

 their way into the rooms so close at hand. All suca vessels for holding water thould be 

 kept closely covered, especially at night, when the female mosquitoes resort to them for 

 the purpose of laying their eggs. 



Fleas and Bugs. 



The consideration of the blood-thirsty mosquito leads one on to think of other insects 

 that have similar evil propensities and that sometimes become a torment to suffering 

 humanity. Fleas are now rarely met with in the older settled parts of Canada, though 

 they were common enough thirty years ago ; occasionally, however, a house may be found 

 to be infested with them. Dr. Howard states that the species most frequently s«nt to 

 the Department at Washington from cities in the Eistern States proved to be the 

 cosmopolitan flea of the dog and cat (Pulex serraticeps), and not, as was supposed, the 

 human species (P. irritans). This accounts for the rarity of these pests in well-ordered 

 houses where the dogs and cats are kept clean. 



*For many interesting particulars regarding mosquitoes, see a papar by Mr. J. A. Moffat in the 24th 

 Annual Report, 1893, page 43. 



