April, 1909.] 



MISCELLANEOUS PESTS. 



DESTROYING THE MOSQUITO. 



While the myriads of mosquitoes that 

 infect the lowlands of Louisiana seem 

 to have an assured hold on life, because 

 of the difficulties involved in thoroughly 

 well draining the lands, yet there does 

 seem to be some hope of their final 

 extirpation, or at least of their reduction 

 to far fewer numbers. It seems that 

 there was quite an invasion of New York 

 city by mosquitoes during this last 

 summer, and the low lying lands of Long 

 Island, Staten Island and New Jersey 

 doubtless furnished the little pests that 

 made New York unhappy for a time. 

 The Army and Navy Journal, in discuss- 

 ing the matter, refers to some work 

 done in Cuba by Major J. R. Kean of the 

 Medical Corps, U. S. A., and argues from 

 the work done there that similar results 

 could be secured in the United States 

 if equal effort were displayed in the 

 battle with the mosquitoes. The 

 Journal states that in the Guines-Union 

 zone in the south-western part of 

 Matanzas province and the south-eastern 

 part of Havana Province, one of the 

 most troublesome and persistent zones 

 of infection in the Island, producing 

 yellow fever every spring, the stegomyia 

 mosquito is now a rare insect. Mosquito 

 breeding in the city of Havana is practi- 

 cally at an end, and June last 23,573 

 houses were inspected in which only 

 forty-nine deposits of larvaa were found. 

 Of these twenty-nine were stegomyia 



Considering that all this improvement 

 has come in a country where until a few 

 years ago there was complete native 

 ignorance as to the infectious dangers of 

 the insect, the mosquito problem should 

 not be treated as something beyond 

 remedy by anyone, but as soluble by a 

 sound mixture of sanitary science and 

 common sense. Since the yellow fever 

 outbreak of 1905 in New Orleans but little 

 attention has generally been paid to the 

 extirpation of the mosquitoes in any 

 broad way. The city of New Orleans 

 has devoted itself assiduously to the 

 thorough screeniug of cisterns, but in 

 the absence of any particular danger 

 from yellow fever the people at large 

 seem to be di&posed to take what comes 

 without any grumbling, whether they 

 be mosquitoes, flies, or whatnot. It is a 

 fact, however, that the more general 

 screening of all cf the houses, restau- 

 rants, and hotels with fine woven wire 

 has reduced the annoyance from mos- 

 quitoes very much. Even in the country 

 " 45 



it is found that the people generally are 

 screening the houses, and certainly 

 malarial fever in Louisiana is incom- 

 parably less frequent than malarial 

 fever in some of the western states. If 

 we were as vigilant in the country 

 about minor drainage as we are about 

 screening our houses for our personal 

 comfort, the mosquito problem would 

 gradually become more and more 

 simplified, until we should finally 

 perhaps reach a degree of control of the 

 mosquitoes equal to that we now secure 

 in our residences. The Pullman people 

 on their sleeping cars are now using 

 large dust screens which exclude mos- 

 quitoes as well as dust. On some of the 

 southern Louisiana trains we find 

 mosquito screens the whole length 

 of the passenger cars, which render 

 summer travel very pleasant as com- 

 pared with conditions some years back. 



If minor drainage and local soot drain- 

 age were attended to on the plantations 

 so that there would be no water hatch- 

 eries existing nearby for mosquitoes, it 

 would add very much to the effectiveness 

 of what we have already done. In these 

 days of fuel oil it would be comparatively 

 inexpensive to oil the ditches every 

 week or two. It is a fact that in the 

 rainy season the oil would be washed 

 away perhaps daily, but nevertheless it 

 would be effective in the dry seasons 

 and comparatively effective always. 



In New Orleans and in the country 

 also, the invasions of mosquitoes are 

 brought about largely by strong easterly 

 wiuds blowing them in from the sea 

 marshes along the coast. These grey 

 mosquitoes so blown in are thought to 

 be innoxious, at least they are not the 

 yellow fever stegomyia, nor the malarial 

 fever anopheles, but merely the culex 

 solicitans, to which, so far, no particular 

 disease has been ascribed. The Army 

 and Navy Journal ought to be good 

 authority, and quoting approvingly as it 

 does the work done by Major Kean in 

 Cuba in the way of mosquito extirpation, 

 it would certainly seem very possible 

 for us to do very much in that way here 

 and thus necessarily benefit the whole 

 community. Our own State Board of 

 Health, with Dr. Dillon at its head, 

 could confer no greater boon upon the 

 public than to carefully consider the 

 mosquito question and to devise ways 

 and means for its suppression or control 

 in town aud country.— Louisiana Planter 

 and Sugar Manufacturer, Vol. XLL. 

 No. 17, October 1908. p, 258, 



