As for vacant sections, the residents have the matter very largely in their own hands. Lack of ordinary community considerations may perhaps not deter them from littering a neighbour's vacant section with rubbish, but for their own comfort they should appreciate that from every tin they throw over a neighbour's fence a swarm of mosquitoes may return to pester them. Business firms are not without blame in this matter, for several sections were found to contain garage litter, large numbers of tobacco tins, and tins of other “packed” commodities. Carriers, too, who have been commissioned to take a lead from a commercial house to a Council dump, sometimes deposit the rubbish in a more convenient gully or section. Grass and weeds soon grow over this litter, the tins fill with water and a severe mosquito infestation results. Inspectors could help to disclose the all-too-common vacant section nuisance by ordering the scything and burning of the rank growth of weeds thereon.

The slow-moving marshy creeks running into the small lakes around Auckland and the larger creeks which become sluggish in autumn breed large numbers of mosquitoes. The remedy is to trim the sides of the creeks and remove the weeds in order to maintain a continuous flow of water. In cases in which this is ineffective, it will be necessary to treat them with a strong solution of copper sulphate at various places from the source to the mouth. Artificial means have to be used when the presence of much sewage or organic matter inhibit the life of natural enemies such as fish and insects.