DOMESTIC MOSQUITOES 7 



profusion. These should be tightly covered or screened, and the 

 spouts must be screened also. Water troughs and pans used for 

 chicken water should be emptied once a week and thoroughly washed. 

 Mosquitoes often breed in puddles of water allowed to drain under 

 the house from refrigerators. Rain water, wash water, and water 

 allowed to leak from hydrants and to form pools in the yard or in the 

 street gutters are sources of mosquitoes. These pools can usually be 

 eliminated by improved drainage. 



Treatment of Breeding Places 



Where breeding places cannot be abolished or screened, treatment 

 of the water is necessary. For this purpose kerosene is most commonly 

 used. A tablespoonful of kerosene thrown into a barrel or cistern 

 containing water not used for drinking will destroy the wigglers in a 

 few hours. This treatment has been used in cisterns from which 

 water for culinary purposes is drawn from the bottom. It may also 

 be employed in unused toilets and fire buckets, although in these 

 places a small handful of jroowdered borax is betterT^asTt "does not 

 evaporaTe^F^herwiseTose its strength, whereas kerosene must be 

 applied every 2 or 3 weeks. Water treated with borax is satisfactory 

 for washing dishes or clothing. 



DratrTTraps in basements and areaways should be treated with 

 kerosene every week or two, or, if borax is used, a new supply should 

 be added each time the drains are flushed. 



Cesspools should have a pint of equal parts of used motor oil and 

 kerosene sprayed or sprinkled over the surface or introduced through 

 a toilet every 3 or 4 weeks. 



The breeding of domestic mosquitoes as well as malaria mosquitoes 

 and other species that develop in ornamental pools may be controlled 

 by stocking them with goodly numbers of goldfish or, better, with top 

 minnows, if the fish are not fed and if vegetation in the pond is not 

 aTlowecT to become so dense as to prevent the fish from having full 

 access to all parts of the water's surface. A light application of 

 gasoline will destroy the wigglers then present without staining the 

 pool or plants. Pyrethrum larvicide, 1 however, is somewhat more 

 lasting and is less likely to injure the fish or vegetation. 



Mosquito breeding in piles of old automobile tires can be prevented 

 by an occasional application of paris green or borax with a dust gun. 



The northern and southern house mosquitoes, as previously stated, 

 breed in great numbers in sewage-polluted waters. The elimination 

 or treatment of extensive "Breeding places of this kind becomes a 

 responsibility of the community. Such contamination should be 

 avoided as far as possible, as heavy pollution destroys the fish and 

 other life in lakes or streams, and mosquito breeding can then go 

 on at a tremendous rate. Furthermore, polluted waters are unsightly 

 and otherwise undesirable or even dangerous to health. Weekly 

 spraying of such breeding places with No. 2 fuel oil will control breeding 

 until the pollution situation can be permanently met. Cleaning and 

 straightening the banks of such polluted streams or lakes will aid in 

 controlling mosquito breeding and also make thorough oiling easier. 



Other responsibilities of the community are to prevent mosquito 

 breeding in sewage filter beds and in water standing along poorly 



i Information on the manufacture and use of pyrethrum larvicide is given in Bureau of Entomology and 

 Plant Quarantine mimeographed circular E-456, which will be furnished free on request. 



