WAR ON MOSQUITOES

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXXI, Issue 18786, 21 May 1923, Page 11

WAR ON MOSQUITOES

That the life of sanitation expert is no less dangerous than that of a soldier at the front, is the assertion of John. A. Gallagher, wh> recently returned to New York from Mexico where he and a handful of Americans rid the Tuxpain oil regions of the yellow fever plague. Tho danger lay in the hostility of the people as well as in the possibility of attack by the insects. The principal weapons of the brigade, according *o Gallagher. are water sprinklers, filled with petroleum to bo spread on stagnant waters. An article in a Tuxpam paper, Gallagher said, declared that on July 6, for the first time in history, it was possible to sleep in the district without a mosquito bite and te'sit on the piaza without being annoyed by the pests, attesting to the good work performed by the commission. While their efforts were mainly directed toward the yellow fever bearing mosquitoes, those carrying other diseases were also attacked, Gallagher said. He explained that the larvae of the aedes caiopus. the yellow fever spreading pest, grow alone, while the larvae of other mosquitoes grow in rafts. This, he said, made the task of discovering larvae extremely difficult.!