Mosquito net

“ I discovered that whereas it was comparatively difficult for a mosquito to get inside the net, once he did get inside it was an utter impossibility to get him out again. One mosquito inside a mosquito net is worth much more than two outside. ”

“ No one ever slept in the tent, and I never found Anopheles bite in the day-time.
The best way of ‘downing’ mosquitos is to prevent the imago hatching, and this, as has been indicated, can be done by killing the larvae and the pupae, which is effected by brushing oil on the water in which they live. The petrol or crude mineral oil should be renewed from time to time as it evaporates. When once the mosquitos are hatched, every effort should be made to keep them outside dwelling-houses by means of wire screens, but if that be impracticable mosquito-nets should be used at nights. ”

“ There are mosquito-nets on the windows, of course, but they seem merely to annoy those birds of prey, and exacerbate their naturally hasty temper. After being obliged to bite his way through two or three folds of pink or blue gauze, no wonder a mosquito sits on your pillow and shrieks insanely in your ear what he is going to do to you. ”

“ When the mosquito bites an infested person, his proboscis removes some embryo filariæ, which are quickly transferred to its stomach. Some of these escape digestion, develop within the mosquito, and when the mosquito dies in water they bore their way out, and are subsequently swallowed by man.
It is essential, therefore, in order to prevent this disease to boil or efficiently filter all drinking water, and to prevent the access of279 mosquitoes to water. Persons infested with filariæ should sleep inside mosquito nets, in order that they may not, when bitten by mosquitoes, spread the disease. ”

“ On the other hand, some of these same habits make it all the more dangerous. It will breed in almost any kind of water, no matter how filthy, and a very small amount will suffice. Thus any leaks from water-pipes or drains, cisterns, small cans of water or any such places may become dangerous breeding-places. If conditions are unfavorable there will often be developed small individuals which can easily make their way through ordinary mosquito-netting.
Dr. Manson has pointed out an interesting possible result of the crusade that is now being waged against the yellow fever mosquitoes. ”

“ Favorable seasons for snipe, when heavy or repeated rains have saturated the meadows, and filled every hollow with stagnant pools of dirty water, are also favorable for mosquitoes. Persons who suffer from the bites of this pestiferous insect—and the difference between individuals upon this subject is remarkable—should prepare themselves with mosquito-nets and ill-scented oils, as they would for a visit to the wild woods; while those who are much affected by the sun should bring unguents with which to temper its intensity and assuage the pain that its burning rays inflict. ”

“ Mosquito nets must invariably be used; many travellers attest their value, so plainly indicated by recent discoveries. The body should be covered up during sleep, and every precaution (as fires, etc.) that circumstances permit should be employed to keep mosquitoes away.
The subjects of malarial infection are dangerous to their companions; they should, therefore, be avoided or, if this is impracticable, compelled to sleep under efficient mosquito nets. Mosquitoes must e rigorously excluded from hospitals. It will prove a truly economical procedure to supply natives liberally with quinine ”

“ It is not, however, the great sea marshes along the coast, where mosquitoes breed in countless numbers, which we can expect to treat by this method, but the inland places, where the mosquito supply is derived from comparatively small swamps and circumscribed pools. In most localities people endure the torment or direct their remedies against the adult insect only, without the slightest attempt to investigate the source of the supply, when the very first step should be the undertaking of such an investigation.
"The remedy which depends upon draining breeding places needs no extended discussion. ”

“ These bristles serve to puncture the skin of the creature attacked, while the curled lip serves as a tube through which the blood may be extracted.
If, while sitting on the porch on a warm summer evening, mosquitoes begin to annoy, let one of them at least serve to show his method of procedure before he is destroyed. Allow the creature to alight upon the back of your hand and slowly raise the arm until the eye looking at near range can see the head of the mosquito, which, by the way, is sure to be a female. Males in this species are entirely harmless. They never eat after they have grown up ”

“ When ready to [Pg 204] change to the adult mosquito the pupa (which, unlike the wriggler, is lighter than water) floats at the surface of the water, back uppermost. The chitinous cuticle splits along the back and the delicate mosquito comes out, rests on the floating pupal skin until its wings are dry, and then flies away. Only the female mosquitoes suck blood. If they cannot find animals, mosquitoes live on the juices of plants. They are world-wide in their distribution, being serious pests even in Arctic regions, where they are often intolerably numerous and greedy. ”

“ But the practicability of this will depend on circumstances—especially, I think, on the species of mosquito with which we wish to deal. In my experience, different species select different habitations for their larvæ. Thus the common "brindled mosquitoes" breed almost entirely in pots and tubs of water; the common "gray mosquitoes" only in cisterns, ditches, and drains; while the rarer "spotted-winged mosquitoes" seem to choose only shallow rain-water puddles and ponds too large to dry up under a week or more, and too small or too foul and stagnant for minnows. ”

“ First, wire screen the yellow fever patient so that no mosquitoes may be infected by him. Second, fumigate the house in which he lies so that no possibly infected mosquitoes therein may infect other humans. Third, and purely a prevision, destroy all mosquitoes in the neighborhood. In the days of the Paris Commune the petroleur flourished. To-day, in the American armies on service in the tropics, the petrolero flourishes. He is the man who spreads oil on all stagnant waters. The larva of the mosquito cannot hatch in running water, nor in fish-inhabited water. ”

“ The scows have their noses poked into the bank, the men have built smudge fires in front, but we decide that the best way to escape the mosquito is to go to bed. We lie down in the stern-sheets with our clothes on, make night-caps of our Stetson hats, pull the veils down over our necks, and try to sleep, but it is no avail. Each one of these mosquitoes is a Presbyterian mosquito and it has been ordained that this night he is to taste of white blood. It rains incessantly, and that hot hole in which we lie is one brown cloud of mosquitoes. ”

“ The whole problem of successful campaigns against the mosquitoes resolves itself into the problem of finding and destroying or properly treating their breeding-places. We have seen how certain kinds, such as the yellow fever mosquito, are "domestic" species. They never go far from their breeding-places. If a house is infected by one of these species the immediate premises should be searched for the source. Cisterns, rain-barrels, sewer-traps, cesspools, tubs or buckets of water or old tin cans in out-of-the-way corners, are all suitable places for them to breed in. ”

“ The males are beautiful, both physically and morally, as they do not bite; their manners are more retiring than those of their stronger minded partners, as they rarely enter our dwellings, and live unnoticed in the woods. They may be easily distinguished from the females by their long maxillary palpi, and their thick, bushy, feathered antennæ. The female lays her elongated, oval eggs in a boat-shaped mass, which floats on the water. A mosquito lives three or four weeks in the water before changing to the adult or winged stage. ”

“ But they are not altogether unwelcome in a house, because they help to keep down the population of the insect world. There is a handsome little spider who spins no web, and roves about, and springs on its victim like a tiger.
Mosquitoes are the most troublesome insects to be found in the tropics, although some districts are much more infested than others. There are several different kinds. The one that causes the most irritation is smaller than the average English gnat. They are veritable bloodsuckers, and the amount of blood which a mosquito can imbibe is astonishing. ”

“ Malaria "is most abundant and most virulent as we approach the equator and the sea-coast." The swarms of mosquitoes (as well as of sand-flies, ants, and other insect-plagues) that infest many equatorial regions are well known; and, with regard to sea-coasts, the accumulation of mosquitoes is both a fact and easily susceptible of explanation. Under the influence of gentle land-breezes the mosquito is wafted toward the ocean, but, in the absence of strong winds that would carry it out to sea, the water will form a barrier to its farther progress seaward, for it is not a marine insect. ”

“ Large numbers of larvae perish in anopheline mosquitoes.
The following developmental cycle has been demonstrated for Culex fatigans and Stegomyia pseudoscutellaris. Bahr has found that if there are too many embryos taken up by the mosquito the insect is apt to die, as the result of too heavy an infection; so that a person harboring many filarial embryos may be less dangerous than one with a smaller number. Upon reaching the stomach of the mosquito the sheath of the embryo becomes fixed in the viscid blood contents and the embryo itself by active motions is able to force itself from its sheath. ”

“ It is also manifest that the purpose of the "sheath" with which it is provided while circulating in the human host is to muzzle the young filaria and prevent its breaking through the blood-vessels, and thereby missing its chance of gaining access to the mosquito. The cephalic armature is adapted for piercing the walls of the mosquito's stomach, and for enabling the parasite to travel through the tissues of the insect. ”

“ This question is an all-important one, not only to the summer resident, but also to cities and towns contiguous to salt-water marshes, or to swampy lands, well suited for mosquito breeding. The answer is this: Mosquito control is possible; actual extermination impossible with an insect that develops so rapidly. The "Jersey mosquito," the unscientific name popularly given to an insect of huge size and ravenous appetite, has become famous. As a matter of fact, the species of mosquitoes found in New Jersey are no more rare or varied than those found on Staten Island or on Long Island. ”

“ One's sympathies are all with the mosquito so far. There is no hell like unsatisfied longings; and if one good long drink of blood means one more mosquito happy, only a churl would grudge it. What one does feel that one has a right to demand is that mosquitoes should study to have "a good bedside manner." This is just what they lack. One would find it hard to forgive a dentist who, forceps in hand, danced a wild cancan before you as you writhed in anticipation in his chair. Yet this, in effect, is just what the Dervish mosquito does. ”

“ Then no one could predict the appearance of the parasite within the body of the mosquito—if it were there—or in what part of the body it should be looked for. The mosquito had to be searched cell by cell. The difficulty of dissecting a mosquito is great even in temperate climes, and when we recollect that hundreds of all the available species were dissected in the most malarious districts in India, we must recognize that it was only a faith akin to that which moves mountains which sustained the courage and stimulated the perseverance of the tireless worker. ”

“ All mosquitoes must have water in which to develop, and the warfare against them consists largely in destroying their watery breeding grounds. This is being done on a large scale, either by draining or by filling in marshes, pools, and similar places which often swarm with the "wigglers." Large areas of such mosquito-breeding waste lands in New Jersey and on Long Island are thus being reclaimed and the mosquito nuisance largely abated. ”

“ At the end of two days out of the pupa skin comes a grown-up mosquito. If it is a Mrs. Mosquito, she promptly begins to bite people and to carry about fevers or malaria from person to person. The bite of a mosquito may sometimes be as dangerous as the bite of a rattlesnake."
The children had been slapping the mosquitoes buzzing about on the piazza. "And now," said the guide, "before we go into supper, I will tell you a real and a true story. Mosquitoes sometimes carry sickness from one person to another until it spreads throughout a large city. ”

“ It enters its stomach, where certain differing forms of the parasite, taking the part of male and female individuals, unite and form a new parasite, which, entering the stomach wall of the mosquito, gives birth in the course of a week to innumerable small bodies as their progeny. These find their way into the salivary glands which secrete the poison of the mosquito bite, and escape, when the mosquito bites a human being, into the blood of the latter and give him malaria. ”

“ Sunk in a cushioned armchair, his slippered feet on the desk, a bottle of cooling ginger pop in one hand and a cream puff in the other, he placed before his imagination the problem:
"Why the mosquito?"
The more he pondered the more he became impressed with the fact that here indubitably was one of the errors of the Almighty. Snakes destroyed rats and mice at least, but what earthly purpose was served by mosquitoes? ”