422 MOSQUITOES OF NORTH AMERICA 
owners realize this more than do official bodies. It is only necessary to cite the 
increased value of real estate at summer resorts where the mosquito scourge has 
been wiped out, and the great value of reclaimed marsh land for manufacturing 
sites in the immediate vicinity of great cities, or for agricultural purposes at a 
greater distance from the great centers of population. 
In community work, therefore, as well as in most other measures of reform, 
the organization of private citizens has usually been the initial step. Many 
communities have their own village or town improvement associations, and many 
cities have their citizens’ associations constantly alert to discover needed reforms 
and improvements and to bring them emphatically to the notice of their elected 
representatives on the City Council and to the Mayor’s appointees on the Board 
of Health. It is through the mosquito committees of such associations that very 
much of the work in this direction has been agitated and inaugurated, and doubt- 
less this method will continue most effectively for some time to come. 
The first step in undertaking such work is to interest several responsible 
persons whose names carry weight in the community, and then to raise a small 
fund, either by appropriations from funds at the disposal of the improvement 
society, or whatever it may be, or by private subscription. Then these persons, 
forming a committee, should issue a circular to every householder, signed by the 
whole committee, reciting very briefly the well-known facts concerning the 
breeding-places of mosquitoes and the measures which should at once be taken 
by householders. A good plan also would be to have a public lecture given by 
some expert, well illustrated, to which all householders should be invited. An 
excellent circular of the character just described was issued in the early summer 
of 1901 as follows: 
The Village Improvement Society of South Orange. 
South Orange, N. J. 
The breeding place of the mosquitoes, that may infest your house, may be 
looked for within your own house or grounds, or in your immediate neigh- 
borhood. 
The mosquito lays its eggs only upon standing water and passes the first ten 
days of its existence in the water. 
Without standing water there can be no mosquitoes. 
Dr. Howard says, “I feel sure that the cesspools in South Orange must be 
responsible for a great deal of your mosquito supply.” Therefore: 
Look to your cesspools, 
cisterns, 
watertanks, 
and any barrels or other receptacles in which water may stand for a few days, 
either inside or outside the house. 
It is suggested that you at once do away with every unnecessary water 
receptacle. 
Put kerosene oil in your cesspools and on surface of necessary standing water, 
once in three weeks. 
Oil placed on surface should not affect the taste of water drawn from beneath 
the surface, but when that is not considered advisable, water receptacles should 
be screened with a fine mesh screen. 
