The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1903-12-04
AND
MOSQUITOES
Tracy Talks to the
Problem
Club.
Gives Eastern Methods
OF Destroying the
Pest.
City Sanitary Officer Tells How
Community Can Help Nos
quito Campaign.

the z. NJ. C. A rooms last evening on
Some Popular Fallacies of the Mos
quito Campaign" Mr.. Tracy, who in
augurated the mosquito campaign in
Honolulu, recently returned from a
visit to the East where he made a
special study OF the methods being
used in getting rid of the pest.
Following Mr.. Tracy's talk the mem
bers of the Problem Club discussed
the mosquito. the results in the city
from the mosquito campaign, the
length of life of the mosquito, poison
in the bite of the insect and the gem
eral results throughout the United
States.
Mr.. Tracy said in part:
II propose not so much to shed very
much new light on the mosquito ques-
ton, as TO correct some very erroneous
ideas held by people who have usually
not taken the trouble to satisfy them
selves as TO the verify of their state
ments. hope that you will bear with
me while I review several of the ele-
mentary phases Of the situation and
then 1 shall endeavor to give you some
further matter for discussion.
First, what is mosquito? Take
the first chance you get, and a teacup
or glass and dip some UP out of the
ponds in your own back yard-for your
own mosquitoes may not be as blood
thirsty as the ones which your neigh
Dor is raising-and spend three min
utes in watching them. You will see
floating on the surface a dark brown
particle which looks like a seed of
some vine but examining closer you
can see that it is made ND of needle
like bodies glued together on end and
forming a seni-concave boat. These
are the eggs, and after few days the
baby wiggler breaks hole through
the bottom of this case and promptly
wiggles to the surface for air. One
boat furnishes 400 larvae and for three
or four days after Matching they are
so small and transparent that it is
with difficulty that they are seen at
ALL Then they become larger and
Opaque and hanging head down with
their breathing tube supporting them
on the surface you may, by looking
closely and holding them between you
and the light, see them feeding raven
ousIy on the minute particles in their
neighborhood. After the eight days,
two horns develop and Mr.. Mosquito
swells up and changes his shape ma
terially, SO that he resembles a head
with a tail attached He floats right
side up and does not wiggle nor feed
any longer and breathes through these
two horns or tubes in his head. After
two or three days his skin, if you may
call it such, splits from the top of his
head down to the middle of his back
and forms fairy boat in which to
stand while he drys his wings and
loosens up his joints preparatory to
flying away. Then he launches away
and hunts for you. Such, in brief. is
his history from the beginning, and if
our image happens to be lady mos
quito she begins to sing at the pros
pect of bleeding you,~for the male in
sects neither sing nor bite, possibly
not so much because they would not
like to as because they cannot.
so much for the mosquito. Now
for our side. for we surely have one.
Oil of course is the best, surest and
cheapest method of fighting the wig7
gler for he cannot swallow oil and air
at the same time and dies within
couple of minutes trying. Pouring him
out onto the ground is equally effect
i've and I wish to state right here and
emphatically, that mosquito larvae
cannot live in wet grass or damp
ground. What they do do is that the
adult lives by day hidden in the grass
and when disturbed flies UP from it
Somebody saw one one day as he was
leaving his rest and ever since we have
heard that Why. you can't kill on
mosquitoes by pouring oil on the
ponds when they breed in the long
grass The reason is that the larva
is essentially an aquatic insect and
does not live out of water any more
than a fish.
speaking of ponds brings to mind
another common error which is readlly
understood and that is that the large
ponds breed large numbers of the
winged tribe And 1t seems logical &c
say that since a small pond breeds
small number of mosquitoes that
large pond will contain proportion
ately large number. And yet for rea-
sons which are obvious this does not
hold First the wiggler must breathe
and the large bodies of water are SO
rough that he is drowned in rninia-
ture surf before he can get into quiet
water Mr.. Larnach and myself have
both proven beyond a doubt that the
big bodies of water such as rice and
taro patches do not breed as many
mosquitoes per patch as are raised IN
one small sardine can full of water az
ter rain Again, the larva cannot
live in clean water He subsists on
decaying matter, preferably animal
substances.
Another faIlacy is that mosquitoes
do not breed in cesspools which have
tight covers and are buried under a