Have you ever been out camping or walking in a beautiful country spot, when suddenly everything was spoiled by a swarm of mosquitoes? These little creatures cannot only ruin our pleasure, they can make us quite miserable with their stubborn attacks.

For a long time, man considered mosquitoes annoying and troublesome but that was all. It was not until the end of the century that we began to discover they were dangerous, too.

A few scientists had suspected that mosquitoes were carriers of disease, but no actual proof had been found. Then it was proven that certain species of mosquitoes carry the worms which cause elephantiasis, a horrible tropical disease, and that other mosquitoes spread malaria and yellow fever.

As a result of these discoveries, scientists really went to work to study the mosquito. They have studied their species, learned all about their life history, and developed ways of controlling them.

For example, we now know that there are about 1,000 species of mosquitoes. While mosquitoes are found all over the world, some species are found everywhere and other species are found only in certain regions.

One of these is the Anopheles mosquito, and several species of this type are known to be carriers of malaria. An Anopheles has black spots on its wings. It stands, when at rest, with its head down and its bill and body in a straight line.

There is another mosquito that is quite dangerous, and this is the Aedes mosquito. It carries yellow fever. This mosquito has white stripes around its legs and crosswise on its back. It rests with its bill at an angle to its body.

The best thing to do about mosquitoes is to eliminate them! The systematic draining of marshland and use of insecticides have done much to defeat this pest.