The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1905-10-24
WAR CONTINUES
ON The MOSQUITO
NEW RELENTLESS THE
PEST WHICH HAS DONE MUCH RELIEVE SITUATION
EAsT-ExCELLENT HAWAII
A ,

abate the pest. At least that is the
opinion of Harold G. Murray secre-
tary to President Darlington of the
Board of Health. who is said to be,
barring perhaps Health officer Doty,
the official of the department best in
formed about mosquitoes.
Mr.. Murray expressed this opinion to
the New York sun the other day i'm
replying to a question if any definite
results had been achieved so far by
the war on mosquitoes. In telling what
had been done and what the depart
ment hoped to accomplish he began by
pointing out that the average mosquito
is a homekeeper. Thus the Stegomyia
variety, which DR.. Doty recently as
serted was solely responsible for the
transmission of yellow fever is never
likely to take the notion to spend the
summer in New York, nor will it breed
i'm this climate.
In his mosquito talk Mr.. Murray uses
the feminine gender only, for the rea-
son that in the mosquito family the
female is distinctly lit"
Asked what the Health Department
had accomplished during the last three
years in its crusade against the Great
er New York mosquito Mr.. Murray
answered:
More than can be told in a word
and much more than the general pub
lie comprehends.
"When ever l am asked, Are there
fewer mosquitoes now than there were
three years ago. 1 always answer
promptly Certainly there are fewer
but, as far, we have discovered no way
to take a mosquito census, of course
1 can't prove it.
zone thing is certain though, the
work Of exterminating the mosquito
has not got very far yet, owing to the
tremendous obstacles to be overcome,
one of which is the amazingly prolific
tendency of the female mosquito, and,
of course, it is the female mosquito
against whom war is waged. The male
mosquito is peaceably inclined ana
doesn't bother anybody. Presumably
he prefers a vegetarian diet and he is
innocuous.
"A healthy female mosquito-and l
guess all of the sex are pretty healthy
is capable of propagating ten million of
her species and of laying anywhere
from 800 to 400 eggs at one time. With
in ten to twenty-five days these eggs
are Matched into full grown mosquitoes.
although there are probably twenty
two varieties of mosquitoes in this part
of the country the CuleX and the Ano-
pheles are the best known, because the
most plentiful, and the Anopheles alone
has the distinction here of being a poi
son transmitter and a menace to health
Anyone curious to know whether Gu
lex or an Anopheles is singing about his
ears can surely tell by this sign: When
the Culex alights her body is always
parallel with the plane on which she
stands, whereas the Anopheles is not
straight but is tilted at a considerable
angle.
"Of course the Board of Health found
out long ago that the only way to
stamp out the mosquito pest is to des-
try the larvae. After a mosquito gets
it's growth there is no known way other
than by hand to hand combat to get
the better of her. but in the case Of
larvae it is different.
I'm the earliest stages of the develop
ment the mosquito is practically am
phibious, the grown female taking
great care to deposit her eggs in water
or mud, preferably the stagnant water
of ponds, marshes, a cistern, rain wd-
ter barrel, cesspool, drain, tin can or
old dish in defective roof leaders, or
the crotches of old trees. Running
water will not do.
1.-The first duty, therefore, f the mos
10Th he
of Health is to keep a sharp lookout
for these places and persuade the own
ers to join forces to help to stamp them
out. Strange to say this is easier said
than done.
Sometimes it can't be done, for the
law doesn't back us up. We can't
under the law require any man to abate
what we call a nuisance say a pond
which is a first class nursery for mill
lions of mosquitoes every season, if the
pond is there by an act of God or Of
nature, whichever you will. We can't
compel the owner to fill in pool which
has always been on the property or
which was there when he came into
possession of the place.
!"Ornamental ponds built to look
/
eide they are a nuisance or prejudicial
to health we can order them filled in,
and of course small pools of all sorts
formed by the grading of new ave-
nues or the putting through of new
streets must be removed by the prop
erty owners on order of the Borough
President.
"Since we began our crusade against
Mrs. Mosquito owners have been urged
to keep clean the edges of running
streams by thinning the shrubbery and
cutting the tall grass, for in such
cases it is only at the edges that the
mosquito will get chance to establish
a nursery. Running water is death
to larvae.
ponds and pools and marshes which
can't be drained and filled in and which
are particularly adapted for mosquito
breeders we treat to a dose of crude
petroleum administered from a ma
chine like this" and Mr.. Murray pro-