24 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



under favorable conditions till checked by frosts in the fall. This 

 domestic pest displays a marked partiality for water in rain barrels, 

 cisterns, defective eave troughs, old wooden buckets, tin cans or 

 similar receptacles. The black eggs are deposited in rraftlike 

 masses of some two tO' four hundred, and the entire development 

 to the adult may occur within 14 days. One rain barrel may 

 produce thousands of mosquitos and provide an abundance of 

 these ubiquitous annoyances throughout a season. 



Control. This species, like a number of other mosquitos, is 

 quite local in habit and its presence may be construed as an indi- 

 cation O'f nearby breeding places. The elimination of useless 

 barrels, tin cans, etc. will accomplish much toward reducing the 

 numbers of this pest, and this should be supplemented by atten- 

 tion to gutters and eave troughs to see that they have not become 

 bent or clogged so as to afford breeding places. Rain barrels and 

 cisterns, if a necessit3^ may be rendered innocuous by covering 

 them closely, even though nothing more substantial than mosquito 

 netting be employed. Should this latter be undesirable, the 

 surface may be kept covered with a film of kerosene, without 

 detriment to the employment of the water for domestic purposes, 

 provided the water be drawn from the lower part of the vessel. 



Salt marsh mosquito^ 



The salt marshes, as might be presumed, present peculiar con- 

 ditions and these are accompanied by a corresponding variation 

 in animal life. Those at all familiar with marsh conditions have 

 learned by experience about the large, voracious swarms of mos- 

 quitos which may occure in such sections. 



Habits. The salt marsh mosquito is typical of several forms 

 which breed by preference in brackish water. The short tubed, 

 dark colored wrigglers are found here and there in pools, being by 

 far the most numerous within two or three hundred feet of the 

 high land, this area being that portion of the marshes flooded only 

 by high tides. These more or less regular overflows of water 

 result in numerous eggs hatching and the production of ravenous 

 hosts of mosquitos, easily recognized by their white banded legs, 

 beak and bod3^ the latter in addition, bearing a conspicuous longi- 

 tudinal white stripe. These insects differ greatly from our house 

 mosquito, in that they fly considerable distances, there being 

 authentic records of their having been found 40 miles from the 



^Culex solicitans Walk. 



