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The world is full of wonders: behold, the mosquito — 21 Comments

  1. I used to work for the Mosquito Commission… wont say which one.. but i did sampling at night along the jersey shore, identifying which kind, their sex, and ripping out their ovaries to determine if they had bitten, and occaisionally stopping off at the radio station, of which the midnight D-jay would play my request spinning me off as Mosquito man in his mosquito van… lots of strange adventures, like the time i broke the rules to pick up 8 or so very pretty jersey shore rocker babes, the man who drove a bike the way a kid in family circus would do something (And hitting the side of the truck in an empty parking lot, depositing a 6 pack in my open window), sex acts of one couple on the hood of their car only to return the same road and find them on the yellow line in the road still going at it, the free 6 pack from a man who was with a slightly underage and happy horney girl, and on and on…

    to quote the Greatful Dead
    What a long strange trip its been…

  2. The reason why mosquitoes can transmit some diseases but not the others is that the pathogen must have a special evolutionary adaptation to go from blood in mosquito stomach into its salivary gland. The process is not mechanical and usially involves different larvae stages of pathogen development, each adapted to separate locale in vector’s organism. That is why not every kind of mosquito can transmit malaria, but only one species in Anopheles genus.

  3. another reason that mosquitos cant transmit certain things (unless slapped and can inject very rarely), is they have a peritrophic membrane. this forms around the blood containing it… it also keeps it from mixing with a second source of blood.

    there are odd things one can do… if one pulls their skin intead of trying to slap them, you can get their probiscus stuck, and if they are feeding from a blood source instead of tissue, they will continue to fill up till they pop.

    they also can filter blood for the solids, and if you leave them long enough, they will eject liquid to pack more material in. the diluted material can contain ebola, virus, etc…

    salt marsh mosquitos tend to be the most agressive, and will attemp to feed through material like blue jeans.

    if one grinds up the critter, and injects it in an animal, the animal will generate antibodies. if another mosquito bites said creature, the antibodies will attack the mosquito. this also works for other blood critters like ticks, but is impractical for control.

    chikungunya, the new desease brought in by juvinile south americn humans can be transmitted by mosquitos..

    the reason we do not have these deseases is because of DDT. the reason that other countries do have them is that Silent Springs lies, and such, got us to stop using it and making the stuff illegal, which has been great for population control of africans and south american poor people!

    Carson based her passionate argument against pesticides on the desire to protect wildlife. Using evocative language, Carson told a powerful fable of a town whose people had been poisoned, and whose spring had been silenced of birdsong, because all life had been extinguished by pesticides

    she was one of the first wacko greenies. DDT was so safe one could easily breath it in and use it without any protection… (And often did).

    While excellent literature, however, Silent Spring was very poor science. Carson claimed that DDT was threatening many avian species with imminent extinction. Her evidence for this, however, was anecdotal and unfounded. In fact, during the period of widespread DDT use preceding the publication of Silent Spring, bird populations in the United States increased significantly, probably as a result of the pesticide’s suppression of their insect disease vectors and parasites. In her chapter “Elixirs of Death,” Carson wrote that synthetic insecticides can affect the human body in “sinister and often deadly ways,” so that cumulatively, the “threat of chronic poisoning and degenerative changes of the liver and other organs is very real.” In terms of DDT specifically, in her chapter on cancer she reported that one expert “now gives DDT the definite rating of a ‘chemical carcinogen.’”[16] These alarming assertions were false as well.

    one can trace peoples dislike and indiscriminate avoidance of pesticides as such to her… so thanks to her, the ones that ARE allowed CAN do things to us, while the one that cant do things is not allowed.

    in 1970 the National Academy of Sciences issued a report praising the beleaguered pesticide:

    To only a few chemicals does man owe as great a debt as to DDT. It has contributed to the great increase in agricultural productivity, while sparing countless humanity from a host of diseases, most notably, perhaps, scrub typhus and malaria. Indeed, it is estimated that, in little more than two decades, DDT has prevented 500 million deaths due to malaria that would otherwise have been inevitable. Abandonment of this valuable insecticide should be undertaken only at such time and in such places as it is evident that the prospective gain to humanity exceeds the consequent losses. At this writing, all available substitutes for DDT are both more expensive per crop-year and decidedly more hazardous

    the administrator of the EPA was William D. Ruckelshaus, who reportedly did not attend a single hour of the investigative hearings, and according to his chief of staff, did not even read Judge Sweeney’s report. Instead, he apparently chose to ignore the science: overruling Sweeney, in 1972 Ruckelshaus banned the use of DDT in the United States except under conditions of medical emergencies

    and this is why those in the know of the history dont like the EPA (among other reasons). in that what it pretends to be, it isnt.

    note that witout DDT, chemical companies had to use more dangerous and more profitable chemicals.

    note that the leftist practice of letting their pet cats out to play is much more dangerous to song birds than DDT. though DDT killing insects did reduce insect eating species of birds, it did not do much.

    for most it had the opposite effects as wild birds suffer the same parasitic onslaughts that humans do… and all animals…

    bird sanctuary that has been counting birds over Hawk Mountain, Pennsylvania since the 1930s reported an increase in sightings of ospreys from less than 200 in 1945 to over 600 by 1970, and an increase in sightings of migrating raptors from 9,291 in 1946 to 29,765 in 1968

    so wackaloons beleifs trump good science, and policy
    and now wackaloons and moonbats are more prevalent than saner well edumacted people. in my lifetime the average level of writing went from 8th grade for business to 5th grade now… (with those coming in thinking the oldsters are arrogant for pretending to know more… yeah… sure… and who won american idol last night?)

    The herring gull population on Tern Island, Massachusetts grew from 2,000 pairs in 1940 to 35,000 pairs in 1970 (at which point the Audubon Society displayed its concern for the birds’ wellbeing by poisoning 30,000 of them, a procedure it said was “kind of like weeding a garden”).

    note that it DOES cause egg shells of birds to be thinner, but this means that you dont use it all the time all over, but use it more sparingly… then you can get benefit while mitigating negatives… though given the increase in birds, this was never a real problem.

    funny thing is that later they used this to validate things, especially with the american bald eagle and the california condor…

    which they then had to give special permission to power companies as their power lines would electrocute them, and today their windmills slam into them…

  4. The science is settled. Scientists and doctors know everything there is to know about the human body, plus also mosquittoes. That’s how it is when obeying Authority. Cannot say things like “don’t know” or “more experiments are needed”.

    This is a reference to the previous trend of scientific technocracy, not this particular idea thread.

  5. That is why not every kind of mosquito can transmit malaria, but only one species in Anopheles genus.

    this is not true… though wiki confirms it, its not true.
    aedes aegypti can transmit malaria, but there are several forms of malaria, not just the ones that prey on humans

    P. falciparum is what humans catch
    Plasmodium gallinaceum causes malaria in birds.

    wiki
    Mosquitoes in other genera (Aedes, Culex, Culiseta, Haemagogus and Ochlerotatus) can also serve as vectors of disease agents, but not malaria.

    and under Plasmodium…

    Plasmodium, commonly known as the malaria parasite, is a large genus of parasitic protozoa. Infection with these protozoans is known as malaria, a deadly disease widespread in the tropics. The parasite always has two hosts in its life cycle: a mosquito vector and a vertebrate host.

    Mosquitoes of the genera Culex, Anopheles, Culiseta, Mansonia and Aedes may act as vectors.
    The known vectors for human malaria (more than 100 species) belong to the genus Anopheles.
    Bird malaria is commonly carried by species belonging to the genus Culex.

    Aedes aegypti is the primary mosquito vector responsible for the transmission of both the yellow fever and dengue fever viruses.

    Though it CAN carry malaria.

    aedes aegypti can easily be identified.. (i had to do it all the time), as they are the ones with white and black striped legs.

    aedes albopictus also hs striped legs but the black zones are much larger and there are fewer white stripes.

    for those that love to worry, aedes aegypti does exist along the new jersey shore… there are about 60 or so species that live there…

    Culex pipiens is the primary transmiter of avian malaria..

    aedes mosquitos like to come inside and bite you in the house… they are very aggressive. if you disturb them, they will bite in the day, not just evenings and mornings.

    most mosquitos are temperature and humidity sensitive

    different mosquitos can carry all manner of things. various forms of encepholitis are common..

    Asian tiger mosquito, which can transmit up to 23 infections, and are thought to come to england and the USA in left over water in tires that were to be recycled..

  6. i just did some research.
    Aedes aegypti may be capable of transmitting ebola

    “Kunz and Hofmann had shown that Marburg virus, multiplies in it after intrathoracic injection although this does not prove A. aegypti transmits the disease in nature.”

    one of the most interesting things that was discovered by accident, was that skin so soft, made by AVON (i worked there for several years post mosquito teens), repels mosquitos, and does not have the common chemicals used

    i have never read anything as to why it works… but it helps make it a common seller for the warm months.

    August 11, 2014 NATURE

    Can Ebola spread to the U.S or Europe?

    According to infectious disease specialist Kamran M. Khan “the chance of Ebola spreading out of West Africa is very, very low.” For one, industrialized countries such as the U.S. and those in Europe have strong health care systems and strict protocols regarding suspected Ebola victims. Although it is possible for someone infected with Ebola to board a plane from West Africa to the U.S., protective measures, such as quarantining would be enacted once the sick person reached the U.S. Additionally, the possibility of fellow travellers contracting Ebola is slim says Dr. Mark Gendreau, a specialist in aviation medicine. For example, in 2004 a man flew from Sierra Leone to London and then the U.S. with symptoms of fever, diarrhea, and back pain. Once in New Jersey the man immediately sought medical treatment. He was found to have Lassa Fever, another type of hemorrhagic fever like Ebola. In response the CDC tracked down 188 people who had come in contact with the man during his voyage. None had contracted the virus.

  7. There are many types of hemorrhagic fever, and some are airborne. But no one is both so virulent and so contagious as this new strain of Ebola. All epidemiologists were taken off guard at the rate of its spread, and all previous estimates turned out to be terribly below real numbers.

  8. I grew up in Chicago and as a kid spending all that time outdoors in the summer, I would be perpetually bitten by mosquitos. What always puzzled me was why some of us were and others weren’t. I was like a magnate for them and oftentimes my friends didn’t have any bites.

  9. Laboratory experiments in infection transmitting actually means nothing applicable to the methods by which these infections are circulating in the wild. I spend a lot of time in Central Asia collecting insects and ticks for analysis if they are harboring specific pathogens, and these ticks usually were full of all kind of viruses, but it tells us almost nothing about their role in epidemiology of corresponding diseases (not onle viral, but also caused by plasmodia and microfilaria). Only real epidemiology data can confurm or reject any hypothesis about ways diseases are spreading. It is biology, very specific for each pathogen-host-vector relationship. No analogy involving other strains of pathogen or other species of vectors actually works. These relationships arise in evolution and involve a lot of special adaptations for every transmitting pathway.

  10. “I was going to add a photo of a mosquito, but they were too creepy. They still make my flesh crawl.”

    But it’s the time of year for creepy, flesh-crawling things!

  11. I was like a magnate for them and oftentimes my friends didn’t have any bites.

    They like the color red. Some of it is smell and temperature.

    The kind of experiments used to develop and refine bio weapons isn’t allowed, since Imperial Japan and the Nazis did them. But Hussein O has been doing some of it indirectly in US hospitals. Combine enough superbugs in one place and you’re bound to get some experimental results.

  12. From semi-tropical South Carolina, I begin and end where you began: I “hate the little buggers.” Their love for me is not returned.

  13. Now I know about a hundred times more about mosquitos than I did this morning when I woke up. I also have O positive blood so that might be why they eat me up every time they have the chance.

    I wish I know why our Blessed Lord God almighty decided we needed mosquitos and designed them so well for their tasks. Yep, mosquitos and Obama two big mysteries that I don’t understand.

  14. OldTexan:

    It’s a test, part of a battery of tests which all people undergo. Consider that each life is granted a spirit, a subset of God, which endows it with a degree of freewill. Consider that not all spirits are created equally, and that God is carrying out a test in order to filter the bad spirits. This explanation is equally informative when you replace spirit with energy.

    I don’t know this, but it does logically follow from God’s moral philosophy.

    Your succulent blood is a reflection of your spirit. Your response to the mosquito, or rather the character changes it engenders, will be considered during your assessment.

    Good luck! Don’t let the mosquito determine your path.

  15. Well, now I know why the skeeters liked me better this evening because yesterday was the first Sunday of the month and we had communion at our United Methodist Church. My blood was flowing with a little extra spirit today and that’s alright too.

    At my age I am just happy to still be having a path and if I need to feed a bug or two along the way I can live with sharing and I hope all they leave with me are a few welts and itches.

    I think a little Scotch and water might be an antidote that will keep me from getting any Malaria or Swamp Fever so I am not too worried about that sort of stuff.

    Anyway n.n. thanks for sharing your logic.

  16. This all reminded me of something I saw whirr past on the infosuperhighway a few days ago so I searched for it and there it was…..

    Turns out Senor Mosquito moves much faster than you do…. so hard to swat… and also thinks much faster than you can…

    “Why Are Mosquitoes So Difficult To Swat? Science Explains”

    Mosquitoes fly at about two kilometers per hour (1.2mph), which seems ridiculously slow, however, shrink yourself to their size and the speed becomes insanely fast. If you were to shrink down to the size of a mosquito and fly, that measly 2 kmph speed would be equivalent to over 200 kmph! Even the world’s fastest man, Usain Bolt, won’t be able to come anywhere close that speed!

    At their scale, the mosquitoes are going blindingly fast for something that small. However, that is not the only reason they are able to give you a slip. To help these pesky insects, nature has accorded them with big, round, and multifaceted eyes, just like those found on flies. In summation, mosquitoes have a panoramic view and are capable of seeing even above and behind them.

    mosquitoes make decisions much faster than you.

    When you decide to hit a fly, a signal goes from your brain to your spinal cord to your arm muscles to start the hand in motion. The time it takes is a few milliseconds. But once the mosquito sees motion, a signal from its brain goes to its nerve cord to its wing muscles, and the time ends up being a fraction of a nanosecond. Essentially, they think and act 100 times faster than you can.

    http://www.inquisitr.com/1523038/why-are-mosquitoes-so-difficult-to-swat-science-explains/

    And

    http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/why-are-mosquitoes-so-hard-to-swat-9765648.html

  17. magnate – a person who has great wealth and power in a particular business or industry

    magnet – A magnet is a material or object that produces a magnetic field. This magnetic field is invisible but is responsible for the most notable property of a magnet: a force that pulls on other ferromagnetic materials, such as iron, and attracts or repels other magnets. 2) a person or thing that has a powerful attraction

    i LOVE it when a honest mistake comes out as a more interesting concept… 🙂

  18. The kind of experiments used to develop and refine bio weapons isn’t allowed, since Imperial Japan and the Nazis did them.

    you mean in the US… but in china, russia, and north korea, they DO still do such experiments using prisoners, and they still have illegal weapons of such, and more than one defector, including a man running one of them who i keep linking to (alibek), has informed us

    Biopreparat
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biopreparat

    Human experimentation in North Korea
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_experimentation_in_North_Korea

    Human experimentation was described by several North Korean defectors, including former prisoner Lee Soon Ok, former prison guards Kwon Hyok and Ahn Myung Chul, and others. This testimony was corroborated by documents brought from Camp 22 in North Korea. In Lee’s testimony to the US Senate and in her prison memoir Eyes of the Tailless Animals (published in 1999) she recounted witnessing two instances of lethal human experimentation. An episode of the BBC television programme This World detailed some of the allegations The claims have been described as “plausible” by a senior US official

    Lee described an experiment in which 50 healthy women prisoners were selected and given poisoned cabbage leaves. All of the women were required to eat the cabbage, despite cries of distress from those who had already eaten. All 50 died after 20 minutes of vomiting blood and anal bleeding. Refusing to eat the cabbage would allegedly have meant reprisals against them and their families.

    I also detaled kamera
    Poison laboratory of the Soviet secret services
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poison_laboratory_of_the_Soviet_secret_services
    Poison laboratory of the Soviet secret services, alternatively known as Laboratory 1, Laboratory 12, and Kamera which means “The Chamber” in Russian, was a covert research and development facility of the Soviet secret police agencies
    Currently: Several laboratories of the SVR, (headquartered in Yasenevo near Moscow), are responsible for the “creation of biological and toxin weapons for clandestine operations in the West”

    The first democratically elected President of the Republic of Georgia, Zviad Gamsakhurdia. According to former Deputy Director of Biopreparat Ken Alibek, this laboratory was possibly involved in the design of an undetectable chemical or biological agent to assassinate Gamsakhurdia. BBC News reported that some Gamsakhurdia friends believed he committed suicide, “although his widow insists that he was murdered.”

    China has been known to do similar, but we do not have any defectors and so dont know exactly what. but from other reports, they have tested things like GM crops on children first.

    to quote louise armstrong:
    What a wonderful world…

  19. Mosquitoes love me dearly, perhaps (I now learn) because of my blood type. Worse, I react to their bites with big, red, itchy, swollen welts much worse than people around me seem to get — so I have been known to get a bit whiny on lovely outdoor summer evenings near still bodies of water.

    Therefore, I was delighted to learn recently that mosquito bites can be “cured” with a blow-dryer! There’s info on this all over Google, but basically, you can remove the itch from a mosquito bite by blasting it (the bite, not the bug, though blasting the bug is also an interesting idea) with a blowdryer, set on the highest heat you can stand, for as long as you can bear without actually burning yourself. I do it in a few short bursts until I can feel that the itch has stopped. Once it’s gone, it’s gone forever. The bite remains, still visible, red and ugly — perhaps more so, depending on your heat tolerance — but the itch is as gone as if there were no bite, and it does not come back.

    I have no idea why this works. I read speculation somewhere on the Internet, from someone purporting to be a doctor, that the substance that causes itching is a protein that could be getting cooked into inactivity by the dryer heat. Maybe so, I dunno — I’m just happy to have discovered a means of staying outside on summer evenings AND avoiding itchy torture later on.

  20. Very good, Art…you made me laugh just now. I’m usually doing these posts on the fly, so I appreciate the proofreading!

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