14 NORTH SHORE BREEZE and Reminder 
Sept. 8, 1916, 
North Shore’s “Big Push” Against Mosquitos 
By BERNARD PETERSON 
in Boston Evening Transcript 
SEPT EMBER usually comes with a new brood of 
mosquitoes, stocking up nature with a winter’s supply 
for the next season’s crop. Sufficient disturbance of 
their breeding grounds would leave them with such gloomy 
prospects for the perpetuation of their race that they 
would vanish from the community... That is so character- 
istic of the mosquito that it at once suggests the mode of 
extermination, and in the pending battle between the 
mosquito and mankind the former is losing ground about 
as rapidly as the latter can dig into it with a plough. With 
good trench work and co-operation man is winning the 
battle, pushing the winged enemy away. 
North Shore is among the communities that have 
declared war against the mosquito, having accumulated a 
$30,000 fund. A larger sum will have to be guaranteed, 
however, before the first trench is dug in the general cam- 
paign, because it is estimated that thorough work cannot 
be done for less than $40,000. The instant that sum be- 
comes available a giant trench digger will swing into 
position on the salt marshes, under the command of an 
association for the extermination. of mosquitoes, and train 
its ploughshares on the soggy marshes that almost reek 
with mosquito wrigglers. Drainage and flushing are aimed 
at. The marshes will be drained either into the ocean, 
or into central artificial ponds, until they are free from 
breeding places and the trenches or ditches, will have 
sufficient flow with ebb and tide to make the trench water 
unsuitable for mosquito hatching. 
Under the leadership of Walter D. Denégre, Frank 
P. Frazier and Colonel William D. Sohier considerable 
preparatory work has been done to have certain private 
estates freed of mosquitoes and to raise the general ammu- 
nition fund, and the residents along the shore have re- 
sponded with donations. When all the residents have con- 
tributed toward this fund, and some of the cities have 
added their mite to it, there will be enough in the treasury 
to drive the campaign to a successful conclusion. Half- 
way measures will not be tried, at the risk of leaving 
swarms here and there in the field to repopulate the pools 
and puddles. 
Proceedings decided upon to redeem the North Shore 
from this compelling pest have long since passed beyond 
the experimental stage, having been applied with success 
in many parts of the country, notably in New Jersey, so 
that when the contractor is authorized to enter the exclu- 
sive section along the shore road he will follow specifica- 
tions already drawn. The entire section from Gloucester 
to Beverly Cove has been surveyed by mosquito engineers, 
at least two miles inland from the shore. Where the 
slope is adequate the salt marshes will be drained into the 
harbor, and where this is impracticable a deep pond will 
be dug in the centre of the marshy land and ditches will 
be cut in radial form around it, like spokes in a wheel, 
to drain the low land into the centre pond. Then. the 
pond will be stocked with fish that will keep the water 
free from mosquitoes. Mosquito larva or wriggler will 
never be permitted to come into maturity within the reach 
of fish that thrive in ponds, a hungry gold fish devouring 
enough of them for breakfast to give immunity from 
“skeeter” bites during one evening of outdoor entertain- 
ment. 
It is contemplated to do much more with the expected 
$40,000 than drain the marshes and stock new ponds with 
mosquito eating fish. It has been discovered by the survey 
that this whole territory along the shore lends itself ad- 
mirably to drainage on'a large scale, yet there are spots 
that cannot be drained. These are to be filled with sand 
or gravel, or whatever material the situation might call 
for; but there are also ragged rocks along the water’s edge 
that have been pouring out mosquitoes in black swarms 
for ages, and are literally breathing mosquitoes into the air 
during the warm summer season. On these rocks there are 
deep hollows. Some rocks lie so low that the tide washes 
over them every day and renders them innocuous; others 
lie a little higher, towering above the ordinary tides, but 
covered by the rising waves once a month as the moon 
applies her gigantic power to the rolling billows. Still 
higher there rises a strata of rocky shore, rough as 
quarries, that opens its hollows to the summer showers. 
It is too lofty to blend its soft waters with the ocean brine. 
It holds in perpetuity all that it receives, except for the 
vaporing exhaust. Its irregular cavities, its cracks and 
its slides that form deep hollows, lend attraction to the 
estates of summer residents, and give character to the 
shore. But they also breed mosquitoes. 
These hollaws in the highest rocks, converting benig-- 
nant showers into stagnant pools of most favorable condi- 
tions for mosquito breeding, will be filled up with cement 
or gravel under the contract that has been drawn up. 
They are to be filled like a dentist fills a tooth, with one 
eye to utility and another to beauty. There is to be no 
ruthless transformation of contour, by jamming down 
material enough to crowd out the undesirable mosquitoes. ~ 
Stagnant water is so essential to the perpetuation of 
the mosquito. race that the extermination of the pest in 
a limited district by removing the water is a sure cure, 
and merely an engineering problem. ‘The mosquitoes can- 
not breed in properly drained marshes, or in the clean cut 
ditches that drain the marshes, neither in the still water 
that is stocked with fish. They will fly a short distance, 
and may be carried by the wind where there is an open 
field ahead, which makes it necessary to extend the treat- 
ment somewhat beyond the territory that it is desired 
to protect. Along the North Shore the campaign will be 
carried about two miles back from the road. 
There has been some protest against the work from 
residents who were solicitous for the “balance of nature,” 
or who take exceptions to the treatment of surface water — 
with oil. Their objection to the oil treatment is removed ~ 
by the fact that no oil is used, and the bird lovers are 
assured that the campaign contemplated can have no 
detrimental effect upon bird life. The residents who are 
actively interested in the movement have magnificent 
estates along the shore where bird life is not only pro- 
tected but nursed as a valued attraction. Considerable 
money has been expended by the property owners in the 
past in a successful campaign against the brown-tail and 
gypsy moths for the preservation of the beautiful shade | 
trees, and the next natural step is to rid the district of 
the pestiferous mosquito in order that outdoor life among 
these trees may be enjoyed. 
Minor details in the campaign provide for inspection 
of the premises by a mosquito expert who may give 
advice as to the disposal of the smaller breeding places, 
such as rain barrels, stagnant water in roof gutters, 
obscure tree cavities, upturned tin cans or pails and numer- 
ous other little reservoirs of stagnant water ordinarily 
unobserved but in which the mosquitoes replenish their 
stock throughout the hot season, 
