The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1903-04-27
Van Dine Tells How
to Go About the
Task.
Destroy the Breeding Places and
the Insects Will All
Vanish. II

The man who viii destroy the mos
quitoes of Honolulu will do more to
make these islands a perfect place
of residence than any man has ever
done. And it can be done. Mr.. d. l..
Van Dine, entomologist at the United
States Experiment station, has point
ed out the way. A systematic effort
in the direction and along the lines
pointed out by Mr. Van Dine. will do
the job.
at is the common opinion here"
said Mr.. Van Dine in a paper on the
subject recently prepared. that the
taro patches ard rice fields are main
Iy responsible Tor the abundance of
mosquitoes. Mosquitoes undoubtedly
breed to some extent in these places
and homes in the vicinity of huch
places are no doubt infested with mos
quitoes from that source but a study
of the subject of breeding places will
disclose the fact that the taro-patches
and rice fields are only partly re-
sponsible for the conditions here. 1
never in my life passed so uncomfort-
able a night as / did on these Islands
seven miles away from the nearest
taro patch or rice field. The source
of the mosquitoes proved to be a rain
water barrel and a tank for storing
water in close proximity to the house.
The places for the most part respon-
sible for the abundance of this pest
are pools, swampy places (such as are
found in abandoned taro patches and
rice fields) barrels, water tanks, wayside
bitches, open sewers, cisterns, wells,
fire-buckets, cutters and caves that
have become clogged, empty cans and
broken bottles on rubbish heaps, post
holes and other excavations left un-
filled, and such vessels as flower
vases in houses left for any time with
out emptying. Mosquitoes have been
found breeding in tin cans filled with
water and placed under the legs of
a table as prevention against ants
1 believe the many tubs, barrels, and
vessels found about houses as contain
ers OF water in the outlying districts
about Honolulu where city water is
not supplied to be more productive
OF mosquitoes than all the taro patch
es about here.
METHODS OF FIGHTING MOSQUI-
TOES.
The only efforts directed against
mosquitoes here are an attempt to
protect oneself from the adult by the
screening of houses, the use of nets
at night, and the burning in the rooms
of buhach or pyrethrum powder. These
methods are more or less successful
in obtaining individual relief but in no
lessen the number or remove
the source of the nuisance. The COM
as a whole receives no benefit
because one man is fortunate enough
to be able to screen his house. A few
individuals here and there have d.
rected their efforts against the lar
vac by the use Of coal oil but this is
of little Importance when a neighbor
can breed enough in q neglected oil
tin or a tub under a water-tap to
make it uncomfortable for the whole
A real estate man can
not be forced to remove from his prop
srty nuisance that units it for res
Dental purposes. A city cannot be
forced to make the place more COM
Portable to the citizens and more at
II active to the visitors but certainly
the Board of Health has the power to
compel a man who is not anxious to
promote the interest and welfare of
MS community to remove from his
property a nuisance and, since we
have the dreaded yellow fever mos
Iuito here, a constant source of dan !
ger to health.
In reviewing the life history of the
MOSQUITO it is evident that the effort I
O exterminate the pest must be di-
,ected against the breeding places.
let the war-cry be mo standing wa
er." Overlook no breeding places.
however, small, even to the empty |
on the rubbish heap.
The most effectual way to destroy !,