Democratic Sentinel, Volume 20, Number 29, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 24 July 1896 — Mosquitoes and Fleas. [ARTICLE]

Mosquitoes and Fleas.

L. O. Howard, entomologist of the United States Department of Agriculture, states in a circular of that department that egg-laying by mosquitoes occurs at night and In the form of boatshaped masses on the surface of the water, 200 to 400 eggs In a mass. The round of their existence is so brief that several generations may occur in ft year, or one generation every ten dayfc Among the remedies suggested Is the not altogether novel one of screening windows and beds. The burning of pyrethrum stupeties them until their presence is unobjectionable. Those on the ceilings of bedrooms may be caught in the lid of a blacking box that is wet inside with kerosene.' It is nailed on the end of a stick and placed near tbo insect. ThOy meet their destruction by flying against ft. « ■ , / The more feasible remedies, lie re~ gards, are' the destruction of their breeding places by draining pools, tha introduction of Iflsh where feasible, oven In tanks, and the application of ketiosene to the surface ofbreedfiag ponds. The latter remedy is applied a£ the rate of an ounce of kerosene to each fifteen square feet of-water. This application will answer in periods of over thirty days. They flnd apong breedlne places raltxwater in barrels, hogsheads, etc. If these ate covered at night they prevent egg laying. . . , y The flea 16 not likely to Infest house* whbtfc tfttf bare floors can liefrdqueDtty arid- rtfofrotfglily swept, < but where it does* thee' sprinkllrig"6f > thrum, powder lithe Infested rooms i» the easiest This failing, bftttzlne may be tried, spraying carpets and floors,' 1 keeping all ‘lights away-. These failing, the floor must‘be washed with hot soapsuds.