PEDIGREE VERMIN.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXIII, Issue 4369, 23 January 1922, Page 1

PEDIGREE VERMIN.

(By an Expert in Tropical Medicine.)

There are cattle breeders and breeders of horses, dogs, and pats. But few of us realise the profound care that is being given to the breeding of —pedigree vermin. lUwil'l soon be the fashion, among the experts of tropical medicine t.o greet each other with tender inquiries after; the health of their entomological kennels. Since Lave ran discovered t|he cause of malaria in a certain mosquito the scientific breeding of flies, gnats, and the like has grown apace. The flea-ikenn.els or. fly-ihouses arc either of all glass or white linen. Sand makes a useful flooring for those which deposit their eggs on the floor. Others prefer sawdust or blot-ting-paper. .But they can be induced to lay their eggs in special places by moistening the nest with chemicals which smell like putrefying things. The heating and lighting of thein quarters is important, as most of them, prefer the blinds drawn and the room' warmed.

Travelling requires special consideration. The mosquito, for example, suffers from seal-sickness if only provided with the floor of a glass bottle to sit bn. Cobweb threads which sway loosely are the methods de luxe..

In the matter of food, they are content with the shaven- side of a tender calf, but tlhey prefer the human forearm 1 . '

Some lay most eggs wfien fed little aiid often. But the familiar bug, the agent of relapsing fevers, will take a short walk and start again even when gorged. The smell of the food .announces that the meal is served in most ihstan’ces, but in the case of the mosquito the warm air rising up from its victim acts ps a dinner gong. When feeding off an animal they show a remarkable knowledge of surface anatomy, always finding their way to the one spot which. more than another suits their taste.

Ifyiredible as it may seem, there are/some flies that actually live in-i side the bodies of these animals, laying their eggs and producing larvae which leave the animal only wihen fully winged. They all carry diseases. It is aniazing to think that the rat-flea killed 70,000 people In! London alone in 1665. But Asia Kas never been free from the bubonic plague, and millions die annually in Russia from if. The ’other diseases due to vermin are legion 1 .