ALASKAN MOSQUITOES.

King Country Chronicle, Volume VIII, Issue 669, 16 May 1914, Page 7

ALASKAN MOSQUITOES.

Mosquitoes in the icebound northern country arc a plague beyond relief. They come to life about the middle of May, before the ground 'is thawed out, and while many feet of ice still covers the lakes and all but the swiftest rdvers. Stagnant sun-heated water is not in the least necessary. They breed in the glaciers wherever a bit- of earth or manure has melted a littla pool. Their wrigglers are seen in running ice water. By the Ist of June it is uncomfortable to sleep without protection, and from that time on until September, when the first frosts have benumbed them, especially during the , ( warm, rainy season of July and ' August, they become a neverceasing scourge, swarming in thousands.

The Alaskan mosquito is small, brown., silent, and very much in earnest. He never sings a warning nor fools about selecting a spot to_ his taste, but, says a sufferer, comes in a bee-line with his probe and gets into action. Every inch of your clothing is 'industriously bored, so that you look like an animated brown cocoon, and the slightest exposed spot on wrist or neck is promptly set. on fire. I experimented with a small hole in my glove. After the first mosquito had found the opening the others came in quick succession to the spot. He left some microscopic "kind lady anl no dog" sign there. If I killed the first and left his carcase it served as a warning not at all. The others came the faster, and the more I killed the more eager the survivors became, perching quite unmoved en the remains of their confreres.