Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1901-08-30
Birds as Pest Destroyers.

Washington are, rs 4 general thing,
free from the pain and torment of mos.
quito bites, there are many portions OF
oar country where the iniliction is a
serious trouble. The truth Is that
there are many districts where sitting
cat of doors at night has become al
most impossible from these pests.
Screens are only partial protection,
for the slightest aperture, or the
shortest opening for egress or ingress,
is sure to let in the waiting enemy
and a resort to mosquito bars with the
temperature marked at the top of the
column precludes at best anything but
choice between being punctured or
scorched.
The design Of the Creator, as all
sensible people are convinced, is that
people should spend as much as posi-.
bic OF the summer season out of doors,
but the mosquito appears not to be in
harmony with Providence on that
point. He regards all human beings
caught in the open air after dark, as
his lawful prey.
The annoyance caused by the mos
quito is really one of the most serious
among the small tribulations of life.
The nervousness and irritability pro-
duced by his bite, especially among
children and sensitive people, some
times amounts to illness, and at any
rate, his presence absolutely destroys
all the romance and delight of country
life. The question is, what to do
about it.
The size of the creature and his alb.
normal breeding capacity are the most
important obstacles in the way of get
ting rid OF him. Wild animals can be
shot or trapped; flies can be discour-
aged by screens and by cleanliness, for
they will not come where they cannot
find food; but the mosquito can al.
ways find food where there is human
being, and the only way to escape him
is to put ones self inside a wire cage.
The most popular remedy discovered,
by those who have bestirred themselves
in search of means to get rid of the
pest, is kerosene. II is asserted, with
truth, that if pool of stagnant water
is covered with thin film OF kerosene
the larvae of the insect will be killed
and the breeding stopped. A still bet.
ter way is to drain the pool, but this
cannot always be done.
To many people, however, the rem
edy will seem worse than the disease
for the scent of coal.oil is not exactly
one of the perfumes Of Araby the blest
and it is inconceivable that any one
should enjoy it unless he had been
brought up near an oil well and was
homesick. There is, however, another
remedy much pleasanter and more eff.
fective.
A sharp-eyed New York ornitholo.
gist has discovered that the salt mead.
ow lands Of the Great South Bay oil
Long Island probably breed more mos.
quitos than any other place in the
world, yet the neighbors are not trou.
bled, simply because the purple martin
OF swallow is bred in great quantities
in that region, aud these birds live or
mosquitoes and other insects. The
night-hawk or whippoorwill is ALEC
fond Of mosquitoes, and it has beer
found that the bird police are wortf
all the petroleum in the world wher
it comes to getting rid Of insects.
Kerosene destroys vegetation as vel
~ insects. The bird eats the latte
and leaves the former intact. But th,
immense demand for birds in millinery
combined with the murderous instinct
Of modern boyhood, has led to slaugh
ter Of the innocents which has almos
depopulsted the woods and fields, 81
far as the bird population is concerned
Hence mosquitoes. Hence rose-bugs
Hence potato-bugs. Hence all kind
of insect pests, which finding them
selves undisturbed by their natural
enemies, proceed to multiply like com
pound interest.
The problem therefore reduces itsel
to this form: Do the people of this
country prefer to see women's hat
adorned with dead birds, while tn
owners fight mosquitoes and the farm
Grand gardener fights insects, or do the,
prefer to see the hats decorated will
ribbons and artificial flowers or Ostrich
plumes, while the bird, in his natura
state. ornaments the gardens and road
sides in the intervals OF catching nox
ious insects? Is the artistic objec
produced by shooting and stufiing ,
purple martin. and impaling him will
= hat-pin, in the middle of tangle o
ribbons worth the trouble of fighting
million mosquitoes, more or less, il
the course of the summer? If it i
not, it 10 about time that the Legisla
lures of our several States looked int,
this matter and passed some law
against the destruction of insect-eat
ing birds. Otherwise the copse
where once the garden smiled, is likel,
to be given over to fragments of plant'
covered with bugs, and the porch en-
twined with honeysuckles, about which
poets love to write, will be rendere,
uninhabitable to unprotected poe
arms.
UNCLE Sam bought two transports
the Mcpherson and the Terry To-
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