TERROR OF THE NIGHT.

Auckland Star, Volume LVII, Issue 276, 20 November 1926, Page 15

TERROR OF THE NIGHT.

THE WAY OF THE MOSQUITO. A DANGEROUS ANNOYANCE. NEED FOR EXTERMINATION. Resting at home after the weary summer's day, in the cooler hours of the soft twilight, seeking that peace which should be at the full after a good dinner and the knowledge of duty nobly done, contemplating the neat front lawn and its bordering flowers with an honest pride, with which is mixed a righteous indignation at the ways of snails, slugs and such like despoilers of horticultural production, there comes to the good man of the house the sounds of music from a gramophone across the way. He listens languidly, but suddenly he is all attention, his eardrums tense to catch the humming melody of a nearer singer. Nearer draw the sounds and nearer yet —until ''slap" goes hand of the listener against his auricular organ. Such a vicious slap! He misses the mosquito and his head rings with the savage impact of his hand as if ten thousand of these "sweet singers of the summer's night" were giving a choral recital. Then he swears—for which he may be pardoned. If curses were flames all the mosquitoes within half-a-mile would be scorched to death. But .they aren't. The scout mosquito adds a laughing sound to its humming and goes around to tell its family what a bad shot the man is, and they all return together and sting him in turn until he gets mad j and goes to bed —and they follow him and make a playground of his face and reduce him to insomniac despair. A Ferocious Insect. Some people—the blessed few—have reached immunity from mosquitoes. They have been literally stung into it. But mostly the "skeeter" has its sweet will of us summer after summer, from the cradle to the grave. Babies are a particular attraction to mosquitoes, and the rich, thick blood of newcomers from colder climates is their favourite delicacy. It is in the darkness that the mosquitoes improve each biting hour. In some localities they make hideous the summer's night, swooping like fleets of aeroplanes upon heads and hands, with their vacuum-pump probosces working at top_ speed, seeking what blood they may devour. It is well.for humanity that all insects are not as ferocious as the mosquito, else we would all be tormented out of existence. It is noteworthy that among mosquitoes, "the female of the species is more deadly than the male," as Kilping rudely wrote concerning humans. It is the female, of the variety termed anophales, which carries the dreaded malaria germ. Mosquitoes are also a source of danger in that they largely increase bacteria in water by their larvae, and they are strongly under suspicion as being spreaders of such maladies as influenza and typhoid. Therefore, they should be killed wherever and however possible. A Thousand Tribes. The Panama Canal could never have ■been constructed had not scientists practically exterminated mosquitoes, which used to kill thousands of white men by infecting them with yellow fever. Scientists have devoted their attention to the mosquito, and they say that there are no fewer than 1000 varieties in existence. Of these, 700 have actually be recognised, examined and classified. It is popularly supposed that the mosquito dwells only in warm and temperate climes, but in the summer it has been found even in the Arctic circle and high up on the Himalayas. Owing to the humidity of our climate and the abundance of watercourses and lakes about Auckland, getting rid of the mosquito is not as easily accomplished as could be wished. In the city itself, however, much good work may be done. Mosquitoes retreat in millions to lurking places in the cellars of business houses and such-like place to hibernate prior to emerging again in the warm months to torture humans and endanger their health. All households should see that no water is allowed to gather nearby, for mosquitoes will gather and breed •wherever there are shallow pools, and they are attracted particularly by old tins, broken bottles and anything else that will hold moisture. A Threatened Danger. Medical opinion is that much importance should be attached to endeavours to exterminate the mosquito, as not only is it a pest and an annoyance to householders, but there is no knowing what time it may become an absolute danger. There is little doubt that it is a carrier of disease, apart frOm malaria and yellow fever, and there was. grave suspicion that last summer it played a part in the transmission of infantile paralysis. From time to time the Health Department has circularised various local bodies as to the various measures that should be taken in order to remove the breeding grounds of mosquitoes and to exterminate the pest, but nothing of a comprehensive nature seems to 1 aye been done by them —certainly thei • has been no concerted campaign attempted, though creeks, ponds, lakelets and stagnant pools pervade the isthmus and kerosene is fairly cheap. A concerted unci comprehensive campaign by local bodies is necessary, and there is much to be done in the way of obtaining information as to what varieties of mosquito we have, whether we have those likely to become conveyors of malaria yellow fever or other dangerous endemic diseases, and in formulating districts and ascertaining the conditions of various localities in order that breeding place? may be abolished and the work of extermination set about in a business-likt manner.