Mosquito Marauders

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 445, 29 August 1928, Page 8

Mosquito Marauders

Keeping Auckland Free

WITH the advent of the humid Auckland summer will come hordes of mosquitoes from many breeding grounds which are known to exist in and aronnd the eit>. Determined and useful work in the detection of disease carried by these insects is being performed by a special committee of investigation, which has been engaged for nearly two years in reseai*h, and which is expected materially to* assist the civic authorities in the gradual extermination of the pest.

Up to the present time there has been no reason to suspect that the mosquitoes "which frequent the stagnant pools, and other breeding places in the north are carriers X)£ anything more than a vicious sting when they bite a tender skin, and even a suggestion from Christchurch that a case of malaria originated in the bite of an Auckland mosquito fails to impress the health authorities here with its likelihood.

• For just on two years a special committee of five scientists, including officers of the Health Department, have been investigating the life and habits of the mosquito with a view to ascertaining the possibility of the carriage of disease. This mosquito committee, which has for its chairman Professor A. P. W. Thomas, started its work by the engagement of

an expert, whose function it has been to select types of insect and observe them closely. Already much valuable information has been secured by this research, and as far as has been ascertained, the Dominion is still free from the particular class of mosquito which carries respectively malaria and yellow fever. The investigations of the committee were hampered to some extent by the cessation of a Government subsidy on account of the slender State purse a year ago, but the New Zealand Institute handed over a grant for the work to continue, and about £3OO has now been spent. It is hoped by the Investigators to secure another sum

from the Institute to complete the work, which Professor Thomas says is producing excellent results. As is very properly pointed out by officers of the Health Department, the removal of breeding spots is the first essential toward the complete elimination of the mosquito, and the accomplishment of this lies largely in the hands of the City Council and the local bodies in infested areas. WORKING WITH CITY

In this work the Sanitary Department of the City Council has been very keen, and to assist the committee, the services of the expert were secured to co-operate with the city health officers in detailed observations throughout the council’s districts. Much specific data was collected in this way, and many instances were brought to light in which people who object more strenuously than their neighbours to the prevalence of the insects were the chief offenders by harbouring them in rubbish tips and unremoved garbage. ' There is a special by-law on the statutes of the City Council concerning the cleaning of places likely to harbour disease-carrying insects, and under its provisions the health inspectors are given wide powers in keeping the city up to a reasonable state of sanitation. Since this by-law was tightened up in 1925, it has not been the policy of the council to have annual clean-up weeks, because the tendency in these instances has been found to be away from general cleanliness and toward storing up the rubbish for the big campaign. CLEAN ALL THE TIME “Clean-up campaigns are very nice, but we think that the best thing of all is to endeavour to keep the city clean all the time,” explained Mr. C. T. Haynes, chief sanitary inspector, “and the rubbish is being taken away in hundreds of loads every day of the year. In this way we remove about four times as much as we otherwise would.” 1 It is not suggested, either by the health authorities or by the sanitary department of the council, that Auckland is a perfectly clean city; nor is it said that the prevalence of mosquitoes is decreasing in the summer months.

Local bodies, in fact, shortly will be reminded t>y the Health Department of the necessity for pre-summer cleanliness, and the 1928-29 mosquito campaign will then have begun. Every possible step is being taken in Auckland toward preventing the introduction of disease through mosquitoes, and toward the removal of the insects themselves.