Albert Freeman Africanus King (MD, 1861, attended GW when it was called the Columbian Medical College - he was the physician who tended to Abraham Lincoln after he was shot by John Wilkes Booth. In addition, King was one of the earliest to suggest the connection between mosquitos and malaria.)
It was clear to organizers of the American effort that previous disease control efforts had been largely ineffective, as the causes of the two main diseases were unknown, but in 1897 it was proved by Britain's Ronald Ross in India that malaria was spread by mosquitos.
La Floresta was formed in 1909 when Dr. Miguel Perea, lawyer and founder of several banks, began planting pine and eucalyptus trees on a large area of sandy ground between the Sarandí and Solís Chico streams and from the town Mosquitos (known today as Soca) to the River Plate.
From 1989 to 1999, eleven volunteers recruited from the United States Public Health Service, United States Army, and United States Navy were immunized against Plasmodium falciparum by the bites of 1001 to 2927 mosquitos that had been irradiated with 15,000 rads of gamma rays from a Co-60 or Cs-137 source.
The Wing comprised 18 Mosquitos from No. 464 Squadron RAAF, No. 487 Squadron RNZAF, and No. 21 Squadron RAF, and was led by Group Captain Percy Charles Pickard (DSO and two bars), an experienced pilot and leader but who was inexperienced in low level attacks and underwent 10 hours' conversion training at Hatfield.
The third stage, bonifica igienica, took measures against the mosquitos (Anopheles labranchiae), such as screens and whitewash (so the mosquitos could be easily identified and killed), and against malaria, such as distributing quinine and setting up health services.
To deter any possible enemy attack, nine Spitfire IXs of N° 1435 Squadron, and six Mosquito night fighters of N° 256 Squadron, deployed to Hal Far from Grottaglie and Foggia respectively, two of the Mosquitos escorting the Prime Minister's Avro York transport aircraft outside Malta and into Luqa airfield on 29 January.
All these stations had mothballed Mosquitos of all versions, and there were also several hundred new Rolls-Royce Merlin engines in their crates.
Other challenges include aggressive alligator gar, alligators, sharks (while crossing the bay), poisonous water moccasin snakes, fire ants, and mosquitos.
Culex taenopius mosquitos, which prefer rodents, were replaced by Ochlerotatus taeniorhynchus mosquitos, which are more likely to bite humans and large equines.