Democratic Sentinel, Volume 16, Number 35, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 16 September 1892 — Motsquitoes. [ARTICLE]

Motsquitoes.

There are very few people who attempt to deal with mosquitoes as they do with other insects. Sufferance seems to be the general rule. In many places in the mountains this insect disappears early in July, but in the lowlands near the seashore he takes up his quarters for the season. There appears to be no remedy quite so effectual for this pest as the odor of pennyroyal. The essential oil sold in the drug stores is hardly so effectual as the fresh herb itself. A bouquet of these fragrant herbs will usually drive away this troublesome pest. When mosquitoes attack a community in force, they are best exorcised by a smuge or smoldering fire of pine boughs or fragrant wood, smothered to give forth a thick smoke. This smoke is not especially disagreeable to the people in the open air, but its effect in driving away mosquitoes is remarkable. The best antidote for the bite of- a mosquito is undoubtedly ammonia, weakened with a little water or salt and water. Some people go so far as to press the poison out of the bite with some small metal instrument like the point of a watch key, before applying the antidote. This prevents the painful swelling that sometimes occurs. As in other cases, “one man’s meat is another man’s poison,” and the same remedy will not apply to all individuals. Some find camphor most efficacious, and salt and water will not avail. Ammonia, however, seems to be generally successful as a neutralizer of the mosquito poison. Where there are large quantities of mosquitoes and no reason for their appearance fs apparent, it is well to look about the premises for something which attracts them. An uncovered barrel of rain water will bring them in hordes, and damp places and stagnant pools are spots where they delight to congregate. There are a great many objections to mosquito bars, the chief of which is the sense of suffocation which their use engenders. They keep out mosquitos, but they also keep out the pure, fresh air. It is better to endure the presence of the pests or to use oth«tr remedies against them, than to keep out fresh air by the use of nets at the windows and doors, or in canopy over the beds.

Ex- President Palacio has arrived on French soil from the inhospitable shores of "Venezuela, and of course begins by declaring himself a patriotic martyr cast out by an ungrateful republic. A few months ago he was sending notes to rebellious generals assuring them that if they brought troops within a fixed distance of his capital be would burn members of the rebel’s family alive. A Shakspeare for children, edited by a Philadelphia man, threatens such innovations as “I am thy papa’s ghost.”