Mosquito control can be done (but it's hard work)

I keep running across articles warning of all these mosquito related disease that are going to kill folks thanks to global warming.

And folks who never heard of the Yellow Fever epidemic that decimated Philadelphia in 1793 think this is a new problem.

no it's not. Malaria, not immorality, probably did more to weaken ancient Rome (not to mention various plagues).

So what can we do to stop Dengue/yellow fever/ malaria/zika virus/ etc. etc.?

uh, maybe kill the mosquitoes?



this has been known for awhile: one reason that the Panama canal was built was because they figured out what was killing all those workmen, and stopped it.

wikipedia article on health measures during the construction of the canal: they note that when the French tried to build a canal, 20 thousand workmen died, so there was a lot of pressure on the US not to let this happen.

The sanitation work included clearing land and establishing quarantine facilities. The most ambitious part of the sanitation program, though, was undoubtedly the effort to eradicate the mosquitoes Aedes aegyptiand Anopheles, the carriers of yellow fever and malaria, respectively, from the canal zone. There was initially considerable resistance to this program, as the "mosquito theory" was still considered controversial and unproven. However, with the support of chief engineer John Frank Stevens, who took over the post on July 26, 1905, Gorgas was finally able to put his ideas into action.
Gorgas divided Panama into 11 districts, and Colón, Panama, into four. In each district, inspectors searched houses and buildings for mosquito larvae. If larvae were found, carpenters were dispatched to the building, and work was done to eliminate objects or places where stagnant water could collect.

Mosquitoes lay their eggs on the surface of standing water, and when the larvae hatch, they live just below the surface, breathing through a siphon in their tails. Therefore, by eliminating standing water where possible and by spreading oil on the surface of any remaining pools, the larvae could be destroyed.

Gorgas also had domestic water systems installed in urban areas around the Canal Zone. These systems eliminated the need for rainwater collection, which had been collected in barrels and was a place for mosquitoes to breed. The United States government also provided $20 million to give workers free medical care and burial services. Gorgas's sanitation department also provided about one ton of prophylactic quinine each year to people in the Canal Zone to combat malaria.^[3]

Gorgas organized a major program to drain and fill swamps and wetlands around the Canal Zone. Many miles of ditches were dug, and grass and brush were cut back over wide areas. Oiling was used in a variety of means: workers with spray tanks were sent to spray oil on standing pools, and smaller streams were tackled by placing a dripping oil can over the waterway, which created a film of oil over each still patch of water in the stream. About 700,000 gallons of oil and 124,000 gallons of larvicide were used on the project.

Gorgas also took another step in his efforts to eradicate mosquitoes in Panama: fumigation. He fumigated the residences of Panamanians who had been confirmed to have contracted yellow fever. "Pans of sulfur or pyrethrum were then placed in the rooms, the right quantity of powder was weighed out (two pounds per thousand cubic feet), and the pans were sprinkled with wood-alcohol and set alight" (Cameron 132). When the effectiveness of this procedure was realized, fumigation was extended to all of Panama. Within a year of Stevens's appointment, every building in Panama had been fumigated, using up the entire US supply of sulfur and pyrethrum. In 1906, only one case of yellow fever was reported, and until the end of the Panama Canal's construction, there were zero.

here's a silent film about how to do it from the 1920's
.


of course, nowadays, using insecticides will get the greens hysterical (look at all the African kids who died when DDT was banned to stop birds from dying).

And that part about draining the swamp? Notice swamps are now called "wetlands" and are protected, again for "Green" reasons.

---------------

here in the Philippines, we have a lot of Dengue fever, and the search to eliminate it via vaccine was a failure when they discovered the vaccine led to fewer cases, but more complicated cases.

the actual rate here is down: but since mild cases never see a doctor (poor people can't afford medical care) and since other fevers mimic mild dengue, the case reports are not always accurate: The facgt that the numbers are down is a good sign however, since reporting is going up (and poor people are richer now so can be seen by the doctors).

But the good news? At least in our city, the mayor is putting in sewer pipes to drain the standing water in the streets, and the drains will be covered instead of open ditches.