BITERS AND BITTEN

Evening Post, Volume CXIX, Issue 88, 13 April 1935, Page 8

BITERS AND BITTEN

PLAGUE OF MOSQUITOES

OTHER INSECT NUISANCES

CORRESPONDENTS' COM-

PLAINTS

1 Judging from some letters received by "The, Post," life has recently become hardly worth living, owing to an increase in the number of insects that make .a habit of biting human beings. The letters to the Editor end with the plea that something shall be done, and that whatever is done shall be done at once.

A "Post" representative acted first on a letter signed "Skeeter." In this it was alleged that on the slopes of Mount Victoria there are great numbers of mosquitoes ("no less than three varieties"), and that their numbers are increasing each summer. Inquiry made of several residents in the vicinity confirmed "Skeeter's" statement as to the prevalence of mosquitoes. "Skeeter" further suggested in his letter that the Mount Victoria mosquitoes had "perchance come as stowaways on the Sydney liners; or, maybe, on the express trains from Auckland; or even as unobserved passengers in Smithy's Southern Cross."

NEW ZEALAND'S EIGHT SPECIES,

j From an entomological point of view j , there would seem to be no need to \ attribute to Mount Victoria's un--1 doubted mosquito population any pari ticular penchant lor travel. New Zea- ' land possesses eight distinct species ' of mosquito of its own, and these are widespread throughout the country.] That there is overcrowding in some j places compared with others is ob-| vious to those who travel. Auckland, for instance, had this last summer more mosquitoes per square inch than Wellington had per square yard. Mos-. quitoes, like the poor, are always with 1 us, in greater or lesser numbers according to locality and season. Compared with other countries, we are fortunate in our mosquito population. Australia, for instance, has. quite a hundred distinct species. New Zealand, too, is distinctly fortunate in that it possesses1 none of the species of mosquito called in entomological circles by the name of Anopheles. These and their allies are the types which have gained such unenviable notoriety as being carriers of malaria, yellow fever, ; and kindred scourges. If anyone finds an Anopheles on Mount Victoria or anywhere else, he should ring up the I Health Department at once, after beat- j ing a hasty retreat from the neigh-! bourhood. • GNATS AND MIDGES. In the lay mind, as a matter of fact, there is often much confusion about things which fly and bite or sting. Quite a number of insects are called mosquitoes, although they have no right to that name. In addition to its eight species of mosquitoes, New Zealand has a hundred or so species of insects generally known as gnats or midges, some of which bite when the occasion offers. Many of these are erroneously called mosquitoes; Midges i and gnats abound on the slopes of Mount Victoria, much as they do in all similar localities. Whether there are more mosquitoes, midges, and gnats this year than in previous years is a subject on which the ■ Government Statistician in his abstracts of statistics is silent. Apparently from seasonal causes certain insects become more numerous in one year than in others. For instance, a few seasons ago the Hutt Valley hadi a perfect plague of "daddy-long-legs," whereas this autumn they are comparatively few in number. Sandflies have been particularly numerous this year in some places like the Marlborough Sounds, but in others they \ have been scarce, much to the joy of campers in such places. It may. well be, as "Skeeter" observes, that mosquitoes on Mount Vie-: toria are more numerous this year than ever before, and one can understand his desire that "the Health De T ! partment or someone else in authority should take drastic steps to combat the pests before they become as big a menace as they are in Sydney or Auckland." He makes the further suggestion that perhaps they breed in the unoccupied sea-lion's pond in the Zoo, in the Wellington College swimming poo], or in the street sumps. Mos-j quitoes; however, do not need such palatial maternity homes as the two former. A little stagnant water in a, gutter, a rain tub, or similar accommodation is all they ask, , and they easily get it. Even a little water in an old tin will satisfy them. • A MALIGNED WASPLET. Another correspondent, "Sufferer," complain/! of "stinging flies of a small type- related to the mosquito," and suggests that the offenders are the "flies" lately liberated for the control of the white butterfly pest. This "fly," really a minute wasp, has been the subject of much misconception since it was introduced into New Zealand. When people first heard that a wasp was being imported, visions were conjured up of,the pernicious insect, which roams England and Europe in the summer time. This is from one to two inches long and at the business end of his' black and yellow body he,has a sting which on the slightest provocation he delights to insert, much to the anguish of his victim. But the introduced wasp is only a distant cousin of this objectionable fellow; is very small, and does not turn his attention to humans. "Sufferer" has apparently encountered some hungry midges, certainly not the wasps imported to destroy the white butterfly. ' '.■

The introduced wasp has no aspirations towards the taste of human blood. What, however, it is going to do for diet when all the white butterflies are destroyed no entomologist seems to know, or, if they do, they don't say. Will the parasite just weakly ,cease to exist, turn up-its six toes, and die, or will it experiment with a fresh diet and then need the •introduction of yet another parasite to keep it from eating what it ought not? Time alone will tell: the white butterfly is as yet far from being extinct. And time alone will tell whether the invasion of Mount Victoria by mosquitoes is a prelude to the devastation of New Zealand and/her population at the hands, or rather the probosces, of these pests. Expert entomological opinion, fortunately, does not take the pessimistic view.