Evening star., 1928-06-09

No one Is quite so ubiquitous as Mr..
Kilijoy. Now he has arrived to take
all the pleasure out of Brule, the Sum-
mer White House, just as the 88 lucky
supporters of the Presidents vacation
had congratulated one another, plus the
four dogs. upon their prospect OF hap
piness. Brule Is described by logger,
who has been there as the most Woe
begone, moSquito-infested hole on
earth. So ferociouS are the mosquitoes
that when this logger was there the
folkg had to hang bits of bacon around
themselves to appease the appetities OF
the voracious CRITTERS" Woe TO the
man who forgot to bring home his
bacon, for those mosquitoes were IN
different whether they ate hogs on
the hoof or In the rind, but they de-
mand bacon!
Everybody was prepared to hear OF
the wild beasts of northern Wisconsin.
but 1t had Deen guaranteed IN the
rental contract that there are very
few mosquitoes there" There are deer
galore. wolves occasionally, muskrats,
bears, porcupines. Wildcats and maybe
bull mooses, but-%no mosquitoes"
The present writer Is familiar With
that region, having spent several sum-
merS there on the. shore OF Chequame-
gon Bay. and within half an hour OF
his first arrival he sat down by a
spring, ito fill a pail OF water" and
hi that instant laid his palm on the
whetted part of bumblebee In the
grass. Ipdian whoops are indigenous!
Ii Is indeed q wild region, with It's
rivers so full of trout that one man and
a worm can catch 100 a day--or with
fly a million-while IN the deep
water lake there are muSkel0nge.
sturgeon. lake trout. whitefiSh and
everything like that-sporty and fine
but mo mosquitoes s"-after Inde-
pendence day.
This logger brings home the bacon
story. II not the meat, as he warns
that the monsters. the man-eaters az
Brule, viii "eat em alive" all through
the Summer With admirable bravery,
the redoubtable President still declares
that he does not choose 10 run even
from Brule mosquitoes.
There is some suspicion that the
mosquito attack is only another frame
up 10 draft President Coolidge and
give him plausible grounds for wen
screened front porch campaign, on the
plea that when the Brule mosquitoes
get busy he'll have to run whether he
chooses or not. They are alleged by
Kiiljoy to be bigger than presidential
bees and painfuler.
Nevertheless. that scary Killjoy has
not spoken scientifically. according To
Or. Leland o. Howard. M D., Pm. d.,
chief of the Bureau OF Entomology,
United States Department OF Agrlcul-
ture. DIR. Howard knows more about
mosquitoes than the national commit
tee does about the next Republican
platform. lie does not deny that there
might be mosquitoes In the pudd!es
OF melted snow, but they live only
through June and yamooSe about the
Fourth OF July In fact. DIR. Howard
has gone so far in mosquito lore that
In a 525-page book, The Mosquitoes of
North and Central America and the
West Indies" he tells all their species
and families and genealogy, their para
sites, and even sets 20 music their thrill
ing songs, Mosquito folklore!
1t seems that the females sing bass
down To l75 vibrations second
while three unfed males gave exactly
the same note. viz. $50 vihfations-~het-
ter known 10 operate performers as
high C"s~but immediately after feed
ing one gave the note "A sharp and
another which had been we'll ted---a
huge bite out OF full-blooded man
sang u fiat The unted males we're
more cuncordant than the unted
females, the latter varying over about
a semitone,"
Says Dr. Howard: mir, J, w Cap
stick, NJ, A., fellow of Trinity College
Cambridge. To whom we are greatly In
dehted for making these ear determina-
tions for us by means OF tuning forks.
was not certain that the note given
by the males was not one OF 440 vibra-
tions. overtones were obviously strong.
aud II sounded at times as II there
were "a faint note OF 440 Vibrations over
shadowed by u strong one OF $40,
So the recent declaration by Mr
Souaa that nowhere In the world II
music making such progress as IN
America appears confirmed when one
reflects that even the mosquitoes sing
In overtonea,
In the stlpenduns work by Dr, How
ard, n N recorded that nne ot the hest
means nf fighting mosquitoes, AS Was
formerly believed, was mol With falcons
nor hounds, hut with bats, which makes
II suspicious that Mr., Killjoy may have
accumulated more bats In his helfry
than we're fund useful whore there
are "very few mosquitoes" aud Is now
trying to mud market for the surplus,
AatA are nu longer tile beat bets IN nias-
quito Warfare,
$50
Nnt onlY ATE mosquitoes musical but |
thry arc great enlarists This was dem- !
nnstfaird whnn trans we're set al dllier. |
ent colora. aud the number pf mos