The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1901-08-22
MOSQUITO PEST.
State Entomologist Smith
Devises Plans to Abate
the Nuisance.
MARSHES SHOULD Be DRAINED.
The Insect Breeds Malaria
but Cannot Be Exter-
minated.
[speelal to ..The Jersey city Newg..l

NEW BRUNSWICK, Aug. %, 1901.-Pro-
fessor John B. Smith, State Entomologist
is making study of mosquitoes at the
New Jersey Experiment Station here. He
has been at the work all summer, learn
ing how, when and where the insects
breed, in order to devise plan for rid
ding infested localities of the pest.
He has mosquito hatchery in one of
his rooms, and has there watched the
development of mosquitoes from minute
corpuscles to eggs, and into "wrigglers."
and until they grow wings and desert the
water to prey upon humanity.
Mosquitoes always breed in water, ;"
Professor Smith said. 1.-The female de-
posts her eggs on the surface of the
water, not necessarily stagnant water,
for the insects propagate in streams
where deep pools form and the water is
still. A fast-fowing stream would carry
the eggs away, and they would probably
be destroyed before they developed life.
The origin of the mosquito is no more
known to science than the origin of other
insects. But by study and observation
the theories are worked out SO that 1t
is known how the mosquito. breeds and
one.
'If all the salt marsh mosquitoes were
of the malaria carrying species people
would find 1t hard to live in Newark. But
the species that breed in salt marshes
are harmless in comparison with those
propagated from pools of rainwater in
fields, in ponds and lakes and other bodies
of fresh and still water.
Mosquitoes cannot be wholly extermi-
mated. But the nuisance could be abated
fully IS per cent. in Newark and vicinity
by a thorough and proper drainage of the
salt marshes from Newark to Elizabeth
port, and the system OF drainage ought
to extend to Amboy. The little streams in
the marsh should be widened and deep
ened, so The water from Newark Bay
would carry fish into the streams, because
fish destroy the eggs laid on the surface of
the water by female mosquitoes. Open
bitches through the marsh would be a
great benefit.
eff the State authorities took hold of
the matter vigorously the mosquito nuis-
ance could be greatly abated by a thor
ough drainage of all salt marshes, for
three-fourths of the mosquitoes in New
Jersey are bred in salt marshes.
Clouds of the insects are carried by the
wind from twenty to thirty miles inland,
and there they settle on ponds and lakes,
and the still water pools of running
streams and propagate more dangerous
species.
Newark people need not fear that
smallpox will be carried by the hordes of
49, oi+ fo,- y,
species so far studied do not carry small
pox virus in their bodies and lancets.
Those that carry febrile poison and de-
velop it into malarial and other fevers are
we'll known now. Medical experts say
now that it is mosquitoes that inoculate
persons with malaria, and that the dis
ease is not caused by foul gases
Professor Smith took several phials
from his hatchery and displayed them on
table. The phials resembled the small
wide-mouthed bottles glycerine is put up
in. The phials were filled with rainwater.
In one were the eggs deposited by fe-
male mosquito on the surface of a pool of
water. Some of the larvae, or eggs, were
SO small that they could scarcely be de-
tected in the water by the naked eye.
Others We're as large as the head of a
common pin. More were like tiny bit
of black thread floating in the water.
They were a day or two old. In another
phial these tiny threads showed signs of
life At this stage they are called ''wrig-
glers.'
They darted around in the phia1 below
the surface of the water. In a third phial
the infant mosquito resembled tiny tad
al a1 nos IN "a 20
Of the water at the mouth of the phial,
| their bodies hanging perpendicular as if
they were strung on wire. They were
breathing air through their lancet tubes,
the ends of which projected little out
of the water In another phial wings
were forming on the insects, indicating
that they would soon forsake the water
and fly in the air.
ut takes eight or ten days to develop a
mosquito from the larvae or eggs, into
full-fedged mosquito ready for business
Most people think that the insects are
/ developed by the million or billions in one
night or even in an hour. But there is
no spontaneous generation of mosquitoes
They have a regular period of develop
ment like other insects, and like animals
/ But the females deposit enormous qua1iti-
ties of eggs, so that the mosquitoes are
propagated in clouds containing countless
| numbers.
Mosquitoes generally fly low, about
| twelve to fifteen feet above the ground.
But on very sultry night, when there Is
little wind, the insects rise twenty to
thirty feet in the air. Generally they
annoy people only on the first floor porch
or steps Of house, while at the second
floor very few appear. But clouds of in
sects have been raised very high by
! strong breezes, and carried thirty miles
from where they were Matched on. a
stream, a pond or in march. A few
days ago while driving through a woods
in Burlington county, l captured mos
quitoes In bottles.
4 "Ihese insects were salt marsh mosqui-
! toes, and the ocean and salt marshes are
twenty miles from the woods. So are
mosquitoes from the Newark swamp
meadows or salt marshes, carried to all
parts of Essex. county and beyond. In the
| same way disease carrying mosquitoes are
carried to Newark from long distance
Professor Smith showed a dozen dead
mosquitoes that had arrived at full life
development in the hatchery yesterday
morning. They were remarkably large in
sects. He said some of the largest speci-
mems he had came from Glen Ridge and
Caldwell and Burlington county. Spec
mems Of mosquitoes had been sent to him