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It had long been known that the breeding-place of mosquitoes was in water; that their eggs when deposited in water floated upon the surface like tiny boats, usually glued together into a raft; that they then turned into larvæ, of which the well-known "wigglers" in the water-butt or the rain-barrel are familiar examples; and that they finally hatched into the complete insect and rose into the air.
"See you next June for sure. I'm coming back then, if I do live away out in Seattle." "You're going to study art in New York, you say? Oh, I'm there very often. Here, let me copy that address." "Going abroad for the summer, you lucky girl? Well, rather not! I'm going to tutor six young wigglers into a prep. school." "Wasn't last night fun?
=How Mosquitoes Live.= Before we can get rid of any pests we must know where the eggs are hatched and the young pass their early life. The eggs of mosquitoes are laid on standing water. The water may be in an old tomato can, a rain barrel, a cistern, or a large pond. A day or two after the mother lays one or two hundred eggs, they hatch into dark, wriggling objects called wigglers.
Sept. 14. Brite and fair. Will went home to-day i was sorry he went, we had a good time and i never knew him to be such a good feller before. i gess it did him good to get a lickin. father says it always does me good to get a good lickin. before he went he got me to throw a ball easy at him and he let it hit him in the eye so he cood tell his folks that a ball hit him in the eye, so he wood not have to tell a lie to his father about his black eye. a feller feels a good deal better when he doesent have to lie to his folks. when i usted to hook in swiming i usted to stick my head in the rane water barril so I cood tell father how i wet my hair. i dident like to do it sometimes becaus the barril was full of little wigglers but i had ruther do that then have to tell a lie, ennyway i gess all the wigglers that got into my hair died becaus they never bit me. father says they turn into musketers.
As Private Tom Clary expressed it to the driver: "In a place like this a gallon of Black Tanks water would be acciptible without a strainer, and no reflictions passed upon the wigglers." "That's so, Tom," called Henry, from the depths of his blankets; "I could drink two quarts of it half and half." "Half and half what do you mean?" I asked. "Half water and half wigglers," was the answer.
If we were studying the development of mosquitoes, for instance, from the larvae or eggs to the fully developed insect, we should not get very far in our nature study if we put them in an aquarium with fish. A fish will soon make short work of a hundred mosquito wigglers just as a large frog will eat the fish, a snake will eat the frog and so on.
Pa says as long as your conscience is clear, and your pores open, life is one glad, sweet song. Well, I don't know, but if pa's conscience is clear, he must have strained it the way they do rain water, to get the wigglers out, or else he has used an egg to settle his conscience, the way they settle coffee. If his pores are open, he has opened them in the old way, with a corkscrew.
Whatever the next half-hour had in store for her, she would at least be alone with it. These fifteen wigglers had become part of her. She must blush for them as for herself, but they were not onlookers, anyhow. The mere absence of Dorcas' gaze was refreshment.
This water is simply swarming with wigglers." "Goodness, what are they?" I exclaimed. "Oh, they're tiny little things like leeches," responded Kate. "I believe they develop into mosquitoes later on, bad 'cess to them. What Mr. Nash would call my pedal extremities are simply being devoured by the brutes. Ugh! I believe the bottom of this creek is all soft mud.
Wigglers after awhile made their appearance sparsely in the covered barrel, but the mosquitoes developed from them proved innocuous of harm, as we kept the barrel covered, and they were soon drowned in the water, not having sufficient area of flight to answer the conditions of their life.
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