Waterbury Democrat., 1901-08-15


 There has been much discussion or late regarding the mosquito, and there is likely to be more, for although the insect is what might be called q silent partner ill the argument, he generally makes antagonists feel the point, # not see it. The plain truth is that many parts of this country, not counting the Klondike and New Jersey, arc so In- fested with mosquitoes that sitting out of doors at night has become almost impossible. In some places ordinary screens are insufficient to render the windows and doors impossible to this annoying insect, and cheesecloth has to be used instead, which results III an atmosphere far from agreeable, ill very hot weather The design of the Creator, as all sensible people are con- yinced, is that people should spend as much as possible of the summer season out of doors, but the mosquito appears not to be ill harmony with Providence OH 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 ser- ous among the small trfbulation of life. The nervousness and durability pro- duced by his bite. especially among children and sensitive people, some times amounts to illness, aud at any rate, his presence absolutely destroys all the romance and delight of country life. The question is, what to do about it.
 Tle size of the creature and his ab- normal breeding capacity are the most important obstacles i'll 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 thetmosquito can always find food where there is q human being, and the only way to escape him is to put ones self inside a wire cage. The most popular remedy discovered byesthose who have bestirred them- selves in search of means to get rid of the pest is Kerosene. It is asserted, with truth, that if pool of stagnant water is covered with d thin film of kerosene the larvae of the insect will be killed and the breeding stopped. A still better way is to drain the pool, but this cannot always be done.
 To many people, however, the reme- dy will seem worse than the disease, for the scent of coal oil is not exact ly one of the perfumes of Araby the blest, and it is inconceivable that any one should enjoy 1t unless he has been brought up near an oil we'll and was homesick. There is, however, another remedy much pleasanter and more af- fectiye. A sharp-eyed New York ornithologist has discovered that the salt meadow lands of the Great South Bay of Long Island probably breeds more mosquitoes than any other place i'll the world, yet :, the neighbors are not troubled simply because the pur- pie martin or swallow is bred in great quantities inc that region, and these birds live on mosquitoes and other in- sects. The night hawk or whippoor- will is also fond of mosquitoes, and 1t has been found that the bird police are worth all the petroleum in the world when 1t comes to getting rid of in- Sects.
 Kerosene destroys vegetation as we'll as insects. The bird eats the latter and leaves the former intact. But of late the immense demand for birds in millinery has led to the slaughter of the innocent which has almost depopulated the woods and fields so far as the bird population is concerned. Hence mosquitoes. Hence rose bugs. Hence potato bugs. Hence all kinds of insect pests, which finding themselves undisturbed by their natural enemies, proceed to null tiply like compound interest.
 The problem therefore reduces it. self to this form: Do the people of this country prefer to see women's hats adorned with dead birds, while the owners fight mosquitoes and the farmers and gardeners fight insects, or do they prefer to see the hats deco rated with ribbons and artificial flow CTS or ostrich plumes, while the bird, in his natural state, ornaments the gardens and roadsides i'll the intervals of catching the noxious insects? Is the artistic object produced by shoot ing and stuffing q purple martin and impaling him with hat-pill, upside down in the middle of q tangle Cf ribbons worth the trouble of fighting a million mosquitoes, more or less, in the course of the summer? If it is not it is about time that the legislatures of our several states looked into the matter and passed some laws against the destruction of insect-eating birds. Otherwise the copse where once the garden smiled is likely to be given over to fragmentary plants covered with bugs. and the porch entwined with honeysuckles about which poets loved to write, will be rendered un- inhabitablc to unprotected poet arms.