Abstract
MR. JOHN F. MARSHALL of the British Mosquito Control Institute at Hayling Island, Hants, has recently issued a pamphlet on the above subject. It deals with the incidence of mosquitoes in static water tanks in the Portsmouth City area. Viewed as a whole, it appears that size of tank is an important factor since the occurrence of mosquito breeding becomes more and more unlikely as capacities increase above the 10,000 gallon limit. Tanks of 5,000 gallons and 10,000 gallons capacities (the two smallest employed) provided one half of the total cases of the occurrence of mosquitoes in some stage of development. In none of these examples was the water heavily infested: in all the larger tanks or sumps mosquito larvae, when present, were few and far between. The only species of mosquitoes found breeding in the water-containers were Culex pipiens and Anopheles maculipennis, although many other kinds prevail in the district. On each occasion upon which mosquito breeding was observed, notification was sent to the National Fire Service authorities, who forthwith sprayed the infested water with oil and/or cleared it of algal growths. The success of these operations was evidenced by the fact that with only one exception no tank was found to be mosquito-infested more than once during the whole period considered (April-November).
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Tank-breeding Mosquitoes in Portsmouth. Nature 152, 18 (1943). https://doi.org/10.1038/152018b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/152018b0