Mosquito Plague Strikes The City

MOSQUITO PLAGUE STRIKES THE CITY

THE INSECTS ARE PARTICULARLY VIRULENT THIS SEASON

No Relief, It Is Said, May Be Expected from the Plague Until Next Fall

The plague of mosquitoes which seems to be particularly virulent this year in different parts of the county has struck Ann Arbor with such force that the firms who deal in mosquito netting are said to be doing a larger business this summer than in the last ten years. Students of entomology here say that since the wet spring of 1872 mosquitoes have not been so numerous as they are now.

A Battle Creek writer says:

"Two conditions which are peculiar to this summer, have produced the excessive crop of these undesirable insects. In many parts of the city where water has been standing ever since the heavy rains, mosquitoes' eggs are laid. If one had been observing, they could easily have seen little boat-shaped things floating about on stagnant pools. Each of these contained eggs enough to afford a supply of 100 mosquitoes.

"No relief from the plague can be expected until next fall. A cold season may keep thern quiet, but will not kill them since they have great powers of enduring cold.

"One citizen whose veracity has not been questioned to our knowledge, says that last night, mosquitoes hung over the mill-pond in swarms, cigar-shaped in form, and that these dark, humming mosquito clouds were about three feet in diameter and several feet long. He says there must have been millions of them in each swarm because their humming sounded like the distant croaking of frogs sometimes, and again like the hum of an electric fan.