Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 63.djvu/463

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MOSQUITOES AND THEIR EXTERMINATION.
459

the 'wigglers' that arc beneath it. Kerosene of a cheap quality, known as high test light fuel oil, is preferable for this purpose. It can usually be bought at eight cents a gallon. If oil of this quality is not available, ordinary kerosene will answer the purpose. It should be applied as often as once in iwo weeks, for by that time the previous application

Fig. 7. Anopheles punctipennis (Female). Three times larger than life.

will have evaporated. A sufficient quantity should be used, in the proportions named, to cover completely any place that may need treatment.

Any one who is ill with malaria or yellow fever should be carefully protected from mosquitoes, for, should a person be bitten by an Anopheles, the malarial mosquito or Stegomyia fasciata, the yellow fever mosquito, at this time, there would be great danger that the insects might fly away and bite some one else and thus spread these diseases. Screens for both doors and windows form the best protection against mosquitoes at all times; but it often happens that the insects get into our houses, even though they are thoroughly screened, generally through some door or window that has been left open by mistake, or they may gain an entrance by coming down an unused chimney if the flue is allowed to remain open during the summer time. A house or a room may be cleared of mosquitoes by burning pyrethrum powder and allowing the smoke, which is not at all offensive to most people, thoroughly