MOSQUITO'S ENEMY.

Auckland Star, Volume LXI, Issue 140, 16 June 1930, Page 3

MOSQUITO'S ENEMY.

FEROCIOUS, GAMBODIAN FISH, TINFUL FOB CAWTHBON. EAT UP THE LARVAE. Every Aucklander will wish good luck to a tinful of Ganibodian fish that arrived on die Aorangi this morning for the Cawthron Institute. They are quite small specimens of the fish family but they have a useful habit of living on the larvae of the mosquito when they can *et it, and have been known to completely "clean-up" pools. The mosquito is not merelv an unmitigated nuisance; he is positively a disease-earner, and though New Zealand has been pronounced free from the particular one that spreads malaria, thousands of men came back from the Great War riddled with that distressing complaint, and there is no telling to what extent it could be transmitted from them, _by means of mosquitoes, to persons tree

from it. This tinful of fish comes from the .Pan Pacific Research Institute at Honolulu, where so much good work has been done in fighting tropical diseases. It is consigned to Mr. W. J. Phillips,, of the Dominion Museum, and he carne speciallv up to Auckland to take charge. The fish will be bred at Cawthron, and experiments -made in mosquito-infested pools. Although the habits of the fish have been 'closely studied at Honolulu and elsewhere in the tropics, it has yet to be seen whether it wall follow the same habits in New Zealand. It is common knowledge that the oiling of pools, the elimination of stagnant witter and the clearing of the growths from the banks of streams all' help to keep the mosquito in check, even if they do not absolutely get rid of him and his family, but such precautions have to be continuous or the pest gets as bad as ever. What the scientists are looking for is a natural enemy of the mosquito. Luckily for the world there are several of these natural enemies, and the only problem is to marshal them so that the mosquito can be utterly routed. The base idea is to attack the enemy in his larval state. The research scientists are agreed that this is the most practical method of control of a noisome and dangerous pest. Several carnivorous wate'. beetles and the fierce larvae of the dragon fly make great inroads on any mosquito larvae that happens to be about. Still more important, however, is the work' done by several species oi little freshwater fish which feed mainly on the surface, and mop up the mosquito larvae to such effect that in time the mosquito is eventually routed. These Gambodian fish that arrived in Auckland this morning are quite small, not bigger than a gudgeon, or about the size of an extra big whitebait. They travelled " de luxe " in the doctor's cabin, and were so well looked after that only about half a dozen had to be '' buried at sea."'