The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1893-08-09
oUR SUMMER ENEMY,
It Is only tho Female Mosquito that Dis
turbs Humanity.
augusta Chronicle.

dainty form 0S IL SeCGleS uOWu vi yOuI
flesh, and you make wild slap at it
with your hand-and hurt yourself,
while the mosquito is sailing off chuck
ling as it plans how it will hit you be-
hind she ear where you cannot see it,
next time.
There is a way to kill mosquitoes
that are intruding upon you. Quick
as these little thieves Of your blood
may be, you can be quicker and out
wit them every time if there is light
and you have patience. When you
hear the tiny soprano song and see
the feathery body settle don't slap:
Wait bit. Let the creature unfold
itself and get out its drill. Let it
find the right spot and begin to bore.
Its attention will be so taken up with
it's blood stealing that you can quietly
and seftly put your finger right over
the SPOT and then down, down, until
within wee distance Of the insect,
and then-there is vacant place in
the Society for the letting of Human
Blood
In doing this you want to shove
your singer from the rear-that is,
sneak up behind the mosquitoes back
for his-that is, her-eyes are in
front, and they are very busy with the
fine boring tools that are being punch
ed down into your flesh. If you get
a good, hard bite from one of these
little monsters and take advantage of
her being busy to look at her through a
strong magnifying glass you would be
surprised and perhaps frightened to
see what head she has.
In the first place you would be as
tonished to find that instead of just
one sharp needles that are going down
into you there are five of them, long,
inesbristles that are unfolded from a
hollow case. These men who studied
the musquito and its ways and have
given names to all its curious parts
call the hollow case the "labium, "
and one, of the FIVE bristles "max-
lila" The horrible things with
spines that curve from near the eyes
and wave about so constantly are moth
ing but the 'sfeelers," +" as you when
boys and girls used to call them, or
ssantenne, as the scientists have bub-
bed them.
When the mosquito finds a. good
spot, where the small blood vessels
come near the surface, she unfolds
her five borers an swings the case
back out Of the way. Then she brings
all fvs of the maxillas together, so
that they gointo the skin at the,same
place. Then she stops singing and
pumps away until her long, thin body
grows round and red with blood-your
blood drop, it may be, butagood
meal. for her.
When she has had enough she draws
out the five points and tucks them
away 5nto their box, fips foot or two
over the case to clean it, and flies
away, more slowly than before, for she
is far heavier. Then you can kill her
without much trouble, but it is only
revenge, and you get.a good spatter OF
red stain-your own .blood-when you
smash her.
There is something about these
points that a mosquito thrusts into
you that leaves bit Of a poison.
Soon you feel sting and thengou
scratch. Pour sharp nails soon wear
the skin off and presently you have
made. very raw spot in the mid
die Of which the poisoned bite is smart
ing.
It may be new to you to know that
the mosquito when she puts her max
ille into your skin and sucks out your
blood, is only taking pay for good
service that she has already rendered
you.
To he sure she was not a mosquito
when she did this, good deed and she
was net bothered about doing you any
good when she did it. She was GU
rious little young bug or worm down
in the bottom Of pond, or pool, Or
maybe onlya ditch, and she had a
funny habit Of. breathing altogether
through her tail, which she thrust up
to the surface Of the water when she
wanted air. She was born in the
spring, and as soon as she came out of
the egg she went down to the bottom
and began to eat all sorts Of things
down there-decaying matter Of all
kinds.
E Now, this is where the mosquito
does good to the great creatures above
the water that she is going to bite
some clay. Each nibble that her little
mouth took Of this old food meant just
so much less matter to poison the wa
ter. Poisoned water, you may know,
is apt to produce malaria and fevers,
and when it stands long enough it will
make many people i'll. So down on
the bottom Of the ponds these tiny
worms are gnawing, gnawing, for they
are very hungry, and only stopping
long enough to take their funny
backward trips to the the surface for
air.
This back.action scavenger keeps
this UP for about three weeks, and has
eaten 10 much that he is growing fat
ter every day. It is now in what is
known as the slarva" state, and is
about to change its form into that of
the "pupa,'' its head swelling tremen-
dously, and it's mouth becomes like
the opening of barrell on a caterpil-
lar. The breathing tube of the tail
closes up, and in its place two queer
little tubes grow on the back Of the
head. The young mosquito is getting
too big to breathe backward any more,
and goes up to the top for air, head
first.
In about a week the creature has
eaten about all of the food that is to
be found in. its neighborhood, and
suddenly one day it floats to the sur
face and there it changes into full
grown mosquito.
Crack! With a faint little noise
that none of us could hear its skin
splits open and out steps the graceful
form Of skin borcr, with long wings
that are gradually unfolded and dried
as the insect floats down stream stand
ing on it's cast-off skin as raft. A
little springfrom the curious boat, the
thin wings are tapped a few times,