Proce:edings 0^ Fi^TH Annuai, meeting 113 

 The Mosquito Problem of the Upper Passaic River Valley 



BY JAMES E. BROOKS, M. E., CONSUI.TING ENGINEER OE THE 

 ESS^'X COUNTY MOSQUITO EXTERMINATION 

 COMMISSION, GI^EN RIDGE. 



To mojst people a mosqu/ito is a mosquito, a fly is a fly, a bee 

 is a bee, and one mosquito or fly is like any other mosquito or 

 fly. Such is not the case, however. There are many different 

 kinds of mosquitoes and flies and bees. Each distinct kind or 

 Species of mosquito^ lives in its own way and follows life habits 

 distinct from any other kind of mosquito. This is the first lesson 

 for the mosquito exterminator. 



In Essex County there may be twenty or more species of 

 mosquitoes, but six or seven are all that the mosquito exter- 

 minator deals with ordinarily. These are : 



The banded salt-marsh, or sollicitans, 



The brown salt-marsh, or cantator, 



The house mosquito, or pipiens, 



The fresh-water swamp mosquito, or sylvestris, 



The woodland mosquito, or canadensis, 



The malarial mosquitoes, or Anopheles group. 



The first three of these have always been the great problem in 

 Essex County, but the summer of 191 7 developed a new situa- 

 tion. The activities of the mosquito exterminators were so 

 successful in fighting the sollicitans, cantator and pipiens that 

 these species became insignificant in number when compared 

 with the fresh- water swamp mosquitoes, or sylvestris. 



Early in May, 1917, Mr. Gies, of Union County, Mr. Becker, 

 of Essex County, and Mr. Young, of Passaic County, made an 

 inspection of the Passaic River from Chatham to Two Bridges. 

 At that time the river was still swollen from the spring rains. 

 They reported that all the marshes along the river were visited 

 and larvae collections made at about each mile along the river. 

 sylvestris and canadensis larvae were found in vast numbers. 



Manifestly, one of the great problems of mosquito elimina- 

 tion in Morris and Essex counties is the control of the fioods and 

 freshets in the Passaic River — or what was once Lake Passaic. 



