SWAT THAT MOSQUITO!

Matamata Record, Volume II, Issue 72, 7 March 1918, Page 4

SWAT THAT MOSQUITO!

Some Interesting Information. The mosquitos which are at present such a pest in some parts of this district are declared to be not the indigenous variety. They are larger and blacker than the New Zealand species, which has almost disappeared except where large tracts of bush or undrained swamp remain. The native has a gentle tenor voice and an unobtrusive and insinuating though persistent method of attack, but his cousin from the Carnatic has the tone of a steam siren, charges like a Highlander, and bayonets his victim with the vim and precision of a Coal steamer. The poison he deposits in the wound is infinitely more irritating, and sometimes produces serious results if the blood of the person stung is out of order. The watercasks of the trooper that carried them were taken ashore at Auckland to be refilled, and the dregs, which must have contained the larvae, emptied out on the beach just about where Fort street now runs. We are not publishing this information with a view to discrediting the Acclimatisation societies, whose zeal and energy in introducing pests is widely recognised ; and we feel sure that the fact that they were forestalled in this instance will not cause alteration in the feelings of the public towards them. A favorite breeding-ground of the Indian mosquito is in the stagnant water so often to be found in tho spouting of houses, and a little care on the part of the plumber in securing a fall towards the outlet will obviate this. A. minute quantity of kerosene poured into the spouting is a certain remedy, though not a palatable one when the rainwater is used for domestic purposes.—Te Aroha 1 News.’