Tag Archives: Mosquitoes

Alyce Edgell and Mosquito Switches

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After I began actively collecting and sharing local history in 1987, my husband, Tom, and I attended a function of the St. Lucie History Museum located on the causeway to Ft. Pierce’s South Beach. When we walked in, one of the ladies say “Well, hello Ms. Thurlow.”

I wondered how she knew me but soon learned that she had been the school secretary for Lawnwood Elementary when I taught there shortly after Tom and I were married in 1962. I was amazed she remembered me because I only taught at Lawnwood for a short time before joining Tom at Travis Air Force Base in California. The lady’s name was Alyce Edgell.

Alyce Edgell. a devoted member of the St. Lucie Historical Society, was the editor of its Historical Quarterly for many years. She prided herself on its content and often including early pioneer accounts that otherwise might be lost. The fact that copies of the Historical Quarterly were preserved in the P. K. Yonge Library at the University of Florida gave her much pleasure.

When I noticed a mosquito switch on display at the St. Lucie History Museum, I remarked that I wondered how they were made. Alyce told me how this was done. She said to clip off a new shoot from the center of a sabal palm (also known as a cabbage palm). While it is still green, shred it with a pin or needle, then make a handle with twine, leaving a loop to use for hanging it up or wearing it on a wrist.

Find a small palm with a new frond that can be cut. If you are unable to get its base you will have to tie it.
Chessy Ricca, former curator at the Elliott Museum, demonstrates How to shred the palm frond.

It is amazing how quickly you can shred the palm. It is actually fun. In no time at all you have something that looks like a horse’s tail.

This is a newly made mosquito switch. It looks very much like a horses tail and will last for a hundred years if kept out of the elements.
Boo Lowery a member of a prominent Stuart family whose father rode a pony at the front of the 1926 Martin County Birthday Parade, bound the handle of this switch and added a loop for hanging or carrying it.

One of the reasons I wanted to feature mosquito switches was to honor Alyce Edgell who taught us how to make them. She died tragically.

ALYCE EDGELL AND HER HUSBAND, ROBERT, WERE KILLED AT THE FLORIDA EAST COAST RAILWAY CROSSING ON SEAWAY DRIVE IN FORT PIERCE ON DECEMBER 14, 1994. ALYCE WAS PRESIDENT OF THE ST. LUCIE COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY AT THE TIME AND SHE AND HER HUSBAND WERE CROSSING THE TRACKS AFTER ATTENDING A HISTORICAL SOCIIETY MEETING.

Mosquito Switches (in three installments)

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This worker is using not only a mosquito switch, but also a smudge and protective clothing. Courtesy Florida Memory

An Ernest F. Lyons Column published in the Last Cracker Barrel entitled “The ‘Good Old Days’ in our Small Town” tells us:

“The salt marsh mosquitos and sandflies were a plague all summer long. Inhabitants kept mosquito switches handy (made from shredded palm fronds) to slap at ankles, wrists and face as they walked abroad.

“When the townfolk went down to meet the mail train in the evening, the passengers were amazed to see them doing a sort of St. Vitas Dance in the street alongside the tracks. It was the famous East Coast of Florida Mosquito Dance, accompanied by slaps of the palm switches.

(“St. Vitus’ dance” is an old fashion name for rheumatic chorea a disorder characterized by rapid, uncoordinated jerking movements.)

Ernest Lyons, beloved longtime editor of The Stuart News wrote weekly columns using prose that bordered on the poetic. Two books of selected columns were published in the 1970s.

The late Val Martin of Florida Classics Libraries, obtained rights to the Lyons books and republished them.

This edition of The Last Cracker Barrel is still available.

When 90 year old Eden pioneer Reginald Waters was interviewed by Debi Witaschek in 1977, he related: “The settlers employed many different methods to ward off the pests, including buring a ‘mosquito power’ in their homes which had a fairly strong odor. It was better than the mosquitos

“The main vehicle used to thwart the bugs was a switch made from the heart of a palmetto tree frond. Waters said it was almost impossible to describe how they were made. Part of the technique involved shredding the frond until it was about the same texture as hair. The switch, one of which everyone owned, was carried everywhere and in constant use swinging back and forth to keep the mosquitos off the owner.”

Of course, I wanted to learn how to make a mosquito switch. I did learn, about thirty years ago. I made several and used them to talk about  what it was like in pioneer times before mosquito control.

Recently, I realized I was not sure I remembered how I had made mosquito switches. I tried to recall and was successful.