The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-05-22
ONCE HAD NO MOSQUITOES.
How the Pests Reached the Ha- waiian Islands in 1896.

Honolulu Advertiser.
 Now. everybody knows that the mosoui- to Is one of the most serious pests aff1ict- ing the people of these islands. Every oody does not know, perhaps, that the mosquito Is an imported pest. It has been nere so long. and has made itself so much at home, that it is supposed to be here by prescriptive right, much the same as any other native-and. possibly, that is the reason why no systematic effort has ever been made to get rid of it. People have hesitated to attack so old a settler-a4< most an aborigine, in fact. Of course. there are instances of individual warfare upon it. No man hesitates to kill a mos quito. if he can, if 1t bites him-or even. sometimes, if it's singing become unbear- able to the tired nerves. But systematic war has never yet been undertaken Per haps when everybody knows that the mos l quito does not belong to the land, but is himself-or herself, for 1t is the lady mos | quitoes who do the biting and the singing "a stranger, no consideration of that kind | will be allowed to stand in the way of a systematic effort at annihilation The story Of the coming of the mosquito is | thus told by D. L. Van Dine, entomolo- gist at the local United States experiment station.
 | Previous to the year 1926 mosquitoes
 were unknown here. During that year they were brought to the port of Lahaina. | on the Island of Maui. in the ship We'll | ington from San Bias, Mexico. The story as told to Prof W. D. Alexander of this city, by his father-in-law. Dr. D. Bald
 win, late missionary in charge of the La l haina station, who received the informa- | tion from the Rev. William Richards, his predecessor in charge of the mission sta- | tion at Lahaina at that time. is as fol- | lows: MT. Richards was returning home
 to Lahaina one evening about dusk and
 met native. who informed him that there was a new fly in the place He de- scribed it as being a very peculiar fly | that made its presence known by "a sing 1 ing in the ear" Shortly afterward MT Richards heard the singing in his ear and recognized the sound as belonging to the mosquito. This was the first instance | the mosquito had attracted attention in these islands Lahaina was the port at | that time for the incoming and outgoing ships. It is easy to understand that at
 that early time the ships coming here
 were few and far between. All evidence pointed to the ship Yelling
 ton as the carrier Of the pest This story
 was later corroborated by MT. Henry A. Pierce late United States Minister to Ha-
 waii in the 70s Furthermore, up to the year 1926 there was no word in the Ha- Waiian language for mosquito The na-
 tive name for mosquito is makika, a cor
 ruption of the name mosquito
 | "The one introduced was the common | night" mosquito or culex. The day
 mosquito (stegomyia) was introduced dur ing the present generation. Since the mos
 quito introduced in 1926 was the culex and
 culez pipiens is the abundant mosquito
 here and the one occurring generally over
 the islands, the inference is that this is | the species brought here on the ship Vel lington from San Bias, Mexico
 'The mosquitoes were a long time spreading over the islands. In the sos il
 Is said they were not at Makawao, on the
 same island as Lahaina The building Of Hpads, making settlement and communica-
 tion possible and the intimate inter-island communication of late years has so favor.
 ed their spread that today it is difficult to name a place which is not burdened -bS
 this most annoying and since we have
 the yellow fever species. dangerous pestS