Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 63.djvu/466

462 such ponds the presence of fish may account for the absence of mosquitoes. Their larvæ furnish food for many species of our smaller fishes, and by them myriads of mosquitoes are annually destroyed. Goldfish are particularly fond of mosquito 'wigglers,' and the pair of fish in the illustration (see Fig. 11) were seen to eat ninety-eight 'wigglers' in four minutes. Goldfish will live and multiply in almost any small and shallow pond in this vicinity, where the water is warm. They are perfectly hardy and will thrive just as well and perhaps better in stagnant water than they will in fresh.

The 'top minnow' the wach, the sunfish or 'pumpkin seed' and even the sluggish horn pout all play an important part in reducing the numbers of mosquito 'wigglers.' Besides the fishes, there are other 'foes of the water' that prey upon mosquito larvæ. Many of the predatory water bugs feed upon them. Professor J. B. Smith, in the report previously referred to, says that "among these predatory insects which abound in shallow permanent bodies of water wherever there is vegetation, the water boatman (Corisa and Notonecta), the water striders or 'skate bugs' (Hydrobatidæ) and the water scorpions