COLORS AND MOSQUITOES

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Mountain View, California · Nov 1, 1905

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 31, No. 44.

COLORS AND MOSQUITOES.

A YOUNG girl was talking about mosquitoes. She had spent the summer in a place where they were numerous. "But I noticed," she said, "that when I wore a yellow dress I didn't get a single bite."

"Did you notice that?" said the young scientist. And he went on eagerly:

"I am glad you noticed that, for it is a verification of certain experiments that have been made.

"We made these experiments in a gauze tent, and their object was to ascertain the effect of colors on mosquitoes.

"We placed in the tent boxes lined with cloth of different hues, and we found that the little pests frantically crowded into the dark blue box, while the yellow box they would not under any circumstances enter.

"The experiments extended over several weeks. We had in the tent stone vessels for the mosquitoes to breed in. We discovered that, next to the dark blue, the mosquitoes sought the dark red box. After the dark red came the brown, then scarlet, then black, then slate gray, then olive green, then violet, then pearl gray, then white.

"Thus we proved that mosquitoes notice colors, and we formulated two helpful hints for the inhabitants of mosquito districts.

"The first hint is to wear yellow to escape mosquito bites and to use yellow netting for bed canopies and window screens.

"The second is to use a blue-lined box if you want to trap the mosquitoes. With this box, in an infested region, you could easily catch and destroy thousands of the insects daily."—Selected.