DOMESTIC MOSQUITOES 



By F. C. Bishopp, assistant chief, Bureau of Entomology and Plant Quarantine, 

 Agricultural Research Administration 



Mosquitoes of several kinds are pests of man and may be found around 

 his home. In the northern part of the United States and in Canada 

 the most widely distributed of the so-called domestic mosquitoes is the 

 northern house mosquito. 1 A similar species known as the southern house 

 mosquito 2 is common in the South. 



These mosquitoes are pests principally because they bite man and other- 

 wise annoy him, but they may carry diseases. The yellow-fever mosquito, 3 

 present throughout the South, is also domestic in its habits. 



MOSQUITOES AND DISEASE 



The yellow-fever mosquito is the principal carrier of the dreaded disease 

 of man that its name indicates. Yellow fever is a malady native to South 

 America and Africa, and strict quarantine regulations are enforced to keep 

 it out of the United States. Therefore, although this mosquito occurs in 

 this country, a person is not likely to contract the disease from its bite. 

 However, modern rapid transportation, particularly by airplane, increases 

 the danger of introducing and spreading the disease, and consequently the 

 importance of vigorous enforcement of quarantine measures to exclude it. 

 When yellow fever gets a start in a country where it is not native, the result- 

 ing sickness, death, and economic losses are enormous. The yellow-fever 

 mosquito is also a carrier of dengue, or breakbone, fever, as well as sleeping 

 sickness of man and horses. 



Mosquitoes of other species transmit malaria and other diseases, but they 

 are not considered domestic mosquitoes since they breed in places more 

 remote from man's habitation. Fortunately malaria is much less preva- 

 lent in this country than it formerly was, largely because of community 

 efforts to control the common malaria mosquito. 4 Some of the measures 

 for controlling the domestic mosquitoes, as given in this leaflet, are also 

 effective against that species, and home owners and health departments 

 should continue their efforts to combat this disease. 



WHERE MOSQUITOES BREED 



All mosquitoes breed in water. Some kinds lay their eggs on the ground, 

 but the eggs do not hatch until they have been covered with water. The 

 larvae must also have water in which to develop. Weeds, tall grass, 

 shrubbery, and vines harbor the adults; untidy yards and uncut grass also 

 hide tin cans and water-filled depressions in which the pests may breed. 



1 Culex pipiens L. 



2 Culex quinquef asciatus Say. 



3 Aedes aegypti (L.). 



4 Anopheles quadrimaculatus Say. 



Issued August 1939 

 Revised April 1951 



