Mosquito Madness
Or...
How They Solved the Mosquito Problem When Building the Panama Canal
Introduction
Panama is the isthmusisthmus that joins North America and South America. As long as there was no canal,canal, ships had to go all the way around South America which took five months instead of a few weeks. The French built the Suez Canal years earlyearlier and they tried to build the Panama Canal but there was a problem...Mosquitoes!!!
Maps Showing Routes Before and After the Panama Canal
The Mosquito Problem Dun...Dun...Dun...
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They gave sufferers mustard baths sometimes. Disgusting!
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Panama has lots of swamps and jungle and it has a hot and wet climate. Mosquitoes love to breed there, and they carry malariamalaria and yellow fever. Yellow fever causes headaches,headaches, fever, muscle pain, yellow skin, black vomit and even DEATH!!!! Thousands died. The French gave up!!!
George GorgasThen a man came and his name was Doctor William Gorgas.Gorgas. After he got rid of the disease by getting rid of mosquitoes in Cuba, he went to Panama to save the day! Unless the American government gave him a millionmillion dollars, he could not do the job. Even though President Roosevelt said no first, finallyfinally he said yes!!! As it was a very difficultdifficult job, there were 4000 people working on the campaign.
Solving the Problem
Man spraying kerosene oilThe mosquitoes and their larvaelarvae died once the oil was sprayeded on top of any water. If there were wire mesh screens on the doors and windows of the buildings,buildings, the mosquitoes could not get in. Then they fumigatedfumigated the rooms before people could go inside. Until they sprayed insecticideinsecticide everywhere,everywhere, mosquitoes survived.survived. They gave people a drug called quinine even though it did not really work.
Conclusion
The mosquitoes and their larvae died once the oil was sprayed on top of any water. If there were wire mesh screens on the doors and windows of the buildings, the mosquitoes could not get in. Then they fumigated the rooms before people could go inside. It was a success. The Panama Canal was completedcompleted and opened in 1914.
The first big ship pulled through the canal by tugboats.
Glossary
| breed | making the next generation | isthmus | a small finger of land that joins two bigger pieces of land |
| campaign | a plan to achieve a goal | malaria | a disease carried by the Anopheles Mosquito |
| Cuba | an island in the Caribbean | mesh | material made by a network of wire |
| fumigate | spray with insecticide | yellow fever | a disease carried by the Yellow Fever Mosquito |
Bibliography
Oh Yikes! History's Grossest, Wackiest Moments by Joy Masoff, published by Workman Publishing in 2006
The Panama Canal, A Great Idea: Engineering Series, by Heather Miller, published by Norwood House Press in 2013
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