On 2014-08-15 18:27:19 +0000, Nick Maclaren said:

In article ,
Sacha wrote:

In the 1970s before Singapore was totally modernised. I ate in an open air
restaurant set in a garden of fan palms illuminated by tiny paraffin lights. It
was magic. I want back a few years later and the garden had been
replaced by yet
another hotel.

When I were a lad, the sole illumination at night was either hurricane
or Tilley lamps - both using paraffin, of course.

That helped keep mosquitoes away - the paraffin, I mean.

No way - tropical mosquitoes aren't the wimpish things that we
get in the far north! We used netting and DMP.

Paraffin was used against white ants - table and chair legs stood
in tin cans with an inch of it in the bottom.

I was thinking mainly of the garden of a hotel in Corfu which had
(apparently) been sprayed with paraffin. It absolutely reeked and it
does seem a very dangerous method! This was back in the mid-70s.

Ah, no, that's not what they had done. Mosquito larvae hang from
the surface of stagnant water, which is why draining the Fens
eliminated marsh ague a century or two back. The usual method
of preventing that is to put a small amount of oil in, and that
kills the larvae. Paraffin is cheap and not very volatile, so
is safe, but it does stink when it evaporates (e.g. on a hot day).

You can also use detergent, but that usually needs a LOT more and
taints the water worse.


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

That explains the reek of it in hot Corfu in July or August!
--

Sacha
www.hillhousenursery.com
South Devon
www.helpforheroes.org.uk