Athens Breeding "Super Mosquitoes" 458
Chemisor writes "Air pollution and cramped housing conditions in Athens, Greece, are creating a new breed of mosquitoes which are bigger, faster, and can smell humans from farther away. The super insects have color vision and detect humans from 25-30 meters, which is about 50% farther than the ordinary mosquitoe. Beating their wing 500 times a second provides them with extra speed, and the larger bodies (by 0.3ug) presumably allow larger bloodsucking capacity." And in a similar vein (har har) New Scientist had a piece about what mosquitoes like or hate about people.
Minnesota State Bird (Score:5, Funny)
If you have someone that loves "all of God's creatures" then you should throw them in pond filled with mosquitoes and see how long it takes them to become a killing machine. Not very long I'd wager. In fact, mosquitoes are pretty good proof that there is no god. Why would a being of infinite good unleash such a horrible plague upon man?
It seemed that the people who produced the most sweat and breathed the hardest were the most attractive. These features seem to come hand in hand with being overweight but I never really bought the idea that overweight people's blood tasted better. If that were true, all the mosquitoes would have moved to Wisconsin.
Instead, you'd have mosquitoes buzzing around your mouth & ears. Why? Because I guess they are attracted to carbon dioxide big time. You accumulate natural carbon dioxide in the wells of your ears and it pours out of your mouth. They also somehow detect lactic acid which you'll find about large animals.
For those of you who don't know, mosquitoes breed in water (when the eggs hatch, they look like this [howstuffworks.com]). Not moving water, but standing water. One of the tasks I used to have was laying silage down, putting a tarp over it and weighting the tarp down with old tires. Invariably, rainfall would fill the insides of the tires with just enough water to make them each a breeding well for mosquitoes. It's not a fun job but you have to make sure that all that old scummy water is emptied out otherwise you'd find yourself engulfed with mosquitoes at the end of the summer.
I've never underestimated mosquitoes, I think they need to be very good at detecting carbon dioxide, scents, heat & water vapor in order to successfully find food for their eggs and lay them. This is quite a task considering what they've got and I think that it's amazing they manage to reproduce at all. I dream of the day when mosquitoes are endangered organisms.
*mental note* Do not hold Olympic summer games in Athens, Greece.
"Mosquitoe"? (Score:1, Funny)
The super insects have color vision and detect humans from 25-30 meters, which is about 50% farther than the ordinary mosquitoe.
Hemos, eh? (Score:3, Funny)
simple solution... (Score:2, Funny)
Could the converse be true? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Makes no sense (Score:2, Funny)
The north of Canada (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Minnesota State Bird (Score:4, Funny)
Yeah, it's funny to read this account but it's all too true. I was sitting out on a friend's deck last night and the little fuckers not only got me but got me through my sneakers and through my sock. I now have one of the largest welts *EVER* on my foot in the most uncomfortable spot to itch and irritate
If only mosquitos came with something positive like the Cane Toads... Mmm, licking toads! Unfortunately they only come with West Nile and various other nasty diseases. I don't exactly think that the "high" from West Nile would be as enjoyable
Bleh
Nobody has said it yet... (Score:2, Funny)
I, for one, welcome our new giant color-seeing long-distance mosquito overlords.
Re:simple solution... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:I think I smell a Sci-Fi channel movie of the w (Score:1, Funny)
Too late.
Mansquito
http://www.scifi.com/mansquito/ [scifi.com]
Re:As one of the luck few... (Score:2, Funny)
Welcome to the puss-y inflamed itching-to-all-hell scabbed-over mosquito-bite reality that many of the rest of us have to endure.
Time to join the normals, I guess... Natural Mosquito Repelling is a pretty lame Super-power, anyway.
Re:Minnesota State Bird (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Minnesota State Bird (Score:2, Funny)
"Land of Ten Thousand Lakes...and a Hundred Billion Mosquitos."
Re:"Mosquitoe"? (Score:2, Funny)
Obviously, the dog is on fire.
Re:Makes no sense (Score:4, Funny)
Well one big factor with evolution is having the energy to run your body. Humans spends a vast percentage of the energy we generate on keeping are brain's ticking over - which we can only maintain because the brain allows to us generate enough food to make that reasonable. Where most animals have as stupid a brain as they can get away with - as it's cheaper to run.
These insects already had color vision, the ability to smell humans from a distance, and bodies - but the greater population of humans created a situation where they can afford to grow bigger, afford to run more powerful noses and afford better vision- as there is enough food to support the greater level of energy these "improved" bodies require to be sustained.
Likewise - if food becomes scarce for these animals evolution will lead to them becoming more fuel efficient again.
This is analogous to the situation facing Americans and their SUVs.
Re:why not earlier? (Score:2, Funny)
Enhanced hunting capabilities often REQUIRES more energy to keep the organism alive, so if Athens wasn't such a fertile feeding ground they wouldn't have had the resources to get bigger/better.
But don't worry, pretty soon people will be complaining about the glut of birds feeding on the skeeters followed by the glut of cats eating the birds, followed by....
Re:Could the converse be true? (Score:2, Funny)
What about the humans? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Makes no sense (Score:1, Funny)
To mosquitos in Greece those two would be indistinguishable.
Re:Could the converse be true? (Score:2, Funny)
I for one... (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Minnesota State Bird (Score:3, Funny)
What Mosquitoes like and hate? (Score:5, Funny)
Hell, I can tell you that without reading the article.
Mosquitoes like:
-that humans have blood
Mosquitoes hate:
-that humans squash them
There you go.
Re:Minnesota State Bird (Score:5, Funny)
I had a friend once who stepped on a mosquito once... the thing just laughed, threw my friend to the ground and bit him until he was on the verge of death. It left a note telling him to leave town or he'd get it again.
Scary shit.
Can't help myself (Score:2, Funny)
I can imagine they'd be a pain in the ass. Or thigh. Or hand. Or practically anywhere, for that matter.
*rimshot*
Typical Science Thinking. (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Minnesota State Bird (Score:1, Funny)
They did. Only the small and weak mosquitos didn't have the energy to migrate, so they stayed in Minnesota. We get the ones that look like this.http://correl.wikispaces.com/space/showimage
Re:Minnesota State Bird (Score:2, Funny)
Also know as burning propane.
Re:Nobody has said it yet... (Score:2, Funny)
Re:What about the humans? (Score:4, Funny)
I find your ideas interesting and would like to subscribe to your newsletter
Sincerely,
G.W. Bush
Re:Minnesota State Bird (Score:2, Funny)
Mozzies hate exploding... (Score:2, Funny)
Next time one jabs you, don't squish it, tense up that part of the body rapidly and repetitively. If the mozzie is on a vein that happens to suddenly get an influx of blood flowing through... pop!
Re:Minnesota State Bird (Score:2, Funny)
Wait, are we talking about mosquitos or Chuck Norris?
A Møsquitøe once bit my sister (Score:1, Funny)
with the sharpened end of an interspace tøøthbrush given
her by Svenge - her brother-in-law - an Oslo dentist and
star of many Norwegian møvies: "The Høt Hands of an Oslo
Dentist", "Fillings of Passion", "The Huge Mølars of Horst
Nordfink".
Mynd you, møsquitøe bites Kan be pretty nasti...
Evolution on equal terms (Score:3, Funny)
Re:As one of the luck few... (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Minnesota State Bird (Score:3, Funny)
when we have draughts the Aedes mosquitoes will lay their eggs anywhere
When mosquitoes start laying egges IN MY BEER I'll know it's time to move.
Mosquito 2.0 (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Minnesota State Bird (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Ha! Why do you think this research is in Scotla (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Natural Resistance to Venom? (Score:4, Funny)
Yet.
Re:Minnesota State Bird (Score:2, Funny)