CHAPTER XIX 



Mosquito Control ^ 

 W. Dwight Pi^erce 



Probably more money and more concentrated effort has been devoted 

 to mosquito control throughout the world than to the control of any 

 other disease-bearing insects. The anti-mosquito work now under way in 

 the United States, under 'direction of the Public Health Service, is the 

 biggest sanitary undertaking this country ever has gone into. When we 

 consider the vast efforts of India, Italy, Panama, Cuba, and other coun- 

 tries against these insects we realize the importance of the problem. 



PREVENTION OF MOSaUITO BREEDING 



By far the most important measures to be taken are those which pre- 

 vent the breeding of mosquitoes, and therefore, we have to deal in some 

 manner with water. If general mosquito control is sought, it is not essen- 

 tial to ascertain the species breeding, but when large communities or 

 armies are to be protected against disease-bearing mosquitoes, time may 

 not permit of general mosquito control but may necessitate particular 

 attention to the haunts of the disease bearers. 



Scouting 



The preliminary measures to be taken, therefore, are the organization 

 and training of scouting parties designated primarily to search out the 

 breeding haunts of these species, and report them to the details or squads 

 designated for control work. The scouts must be trained entomologists 

 skilled in the knowledge of mosquito haunts. They must examine the 

 water in all receptacles in and around buildings, and in discarded vessels. 

 They must seek out all puddles, hoof prints, wagon ruts, tree holes, 

 ditches, and streams, and carefully examine these. A chart should be 

 kept showing the location of all water and this can be marked in various 

 ways to indicate the species present. Colored pin-markers on a wall 

 chart are very serviceable. A field chart would have to be marked other- 

 wise. 



•This lecture was read September 30 and distributed October 7, 1918. It has been 

 greatly revised. 



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