War Against Mosquitoes

fT!HE outstanding effectiveness of DMP A (dimethyl phthallate) over other insect repellents as a protection against the malaria-carrying mosquito has been recently demonstrated by the Army Malaria Research Station at Taveta, in Kenya.

Although pyrethrum jelly was also found to be reasonably effective, it was not comparable in effectiveness with

Dmp.

For more than 18 months the Research Station has been carrying out field ex periments on insecticides, larvicides and insect repellents and seeking information of immediate practical value on the habits of the African malaria carriers.

Eight huts were erected in various types of country, and two Africans were em ployed to sleep in each as “bait,” writes a military observer. “It is noteworthy that not only is this generally a popular

form of employment,” states a report on the work, “but no case has yet been re corded of any man thus employed being admitted to hospital with malaria.”

As to the effectiveness of DDT as an insecticide, it is stated that in the case of a tent impregnated at the rate of 200 mgms. of DDT per sq. ft., nine months after treatment 65.5 per cent, of the total number of mosquitoes present in the tent at 08.30 hrs. every morning were already dead; of the remainder 51.5 per cent, were dead within 12 hours. Gammexane, or “666,” appeared to be as good as DDT at the same dosage.—“ Crown Colonist.”

The New Zealand Club building in Suva has been taken over by two Government Departments, One half has been turned into offices for the Rehabilitation and War Pensions Board, and the other is being used in connection with the filariasis campaign.