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.
Re:Makes no sense (Score:5, Interesting)
Color vision is a distinct evolutionary advantage in a number of settings. As I said before however, regular mosquitos have some form of color vision with two photopigments. Bees have three photopigments that are tuned up into the UV portion of the spectrum so they can better identify pollinating flowers. For mosquitos, perhaps a little color vision would help them to better identify easy meals like pink apes rather than tougher meals like animals with lots of hair....
Re:Someone should shoot them... (Score:5, Interesting)
Voila 90% of the mosquitos go over there to die as a giant source of Co2 means lots of good things to eat to the little buggers.
My grandfather was doing this a decade ago.
Re:Minnesota State Bird (Score:3, Interesting)
I took a canoe trip up to the BSA high adventure base on the northern tier several years back as part of a group from the local BSA council. Neat trip on the whole, but I got bit by a mosquito *through* my sleeping bag the first night. Holy hell.
It's *preference* only (Score:3, Interesting)
I seriously doubt that this will work as well as a repellant. All he did was figure out what flavor of human mosquitos like. Sure, if there are lots of humans around, they will go after the one they like, but in a pinch, they are still comming after you. It's like saying, we did research and found that oni prefers chocolate ice cream, so we are only selling vanilla - that wll keep him away.
No, actually it wont. If you're the only ice cream shop in town, I'll make do with vanilla. Similarly, if you're out walking alone in the woods, the mosquitoes are going to bite you even if you don't taste just the way they like.
This discovery is still good for when you are in a group of people - unless everyone in the group makes use of it, then you're back where you started.
Michigan State Bird (Score:5, Interesting)
It's not the size, is the quantity. We had big, even HUGE mosquitoes in Michigan, but it was the tenacious little bitsy ones that appeared in great quantities and stung the most. Smaller mosquitoes also are able to get through smaller holes and gaps and were typically the ones found indoors.
It's been said "Intimidation is being in a dark room with a mosquito." As tired as you may be, lying in bed, there's something about that faint whine that can make the most tired very alert.
I like Dave Barry's line about armor piercing stealth mosquitoes and think this is what the Greeks are up to. Screw the North Koreans, it's the greeks we need to keep an eye on.
One last thing: Ponds are filled with mosquitoes. Larvae perhaps, but not the adults. Mosquitoes prefer long grass or shade, which is why it's often a good idea to just write off the golfball hit into the brush or edge or woods. Worst around ponds are deer flies, which I used to refer to as Flying Bastards
Natural Resistance to Venom? (Score:4, Interesting)
I am convinced that I do NOT have a natural resistance to mosquito venom, rather I believe that I have 'tuned' my body to be resistant. You see, growing up as a child I had the idea in my head (don't know how it got there), that if I just let the mosquitos bite me that eventually my body would adapt and become resistant. So while everybody else was slapping their arms and waving their hands about in the air, I would sit there and let them suck away... after I figured they had enough blood, I would pick them off by the leg and let them fly away.
Is there any merit to this? I'm not sure, but I can tell you that I USED to swell up after begin bitten, but NOW I'm all but immune.
Mosquito repellant (Score:3, Interesting)
I've heard that garlic is a natural mosquito repellant (seems to repel many bugs such as ants and cockroaches). I've read that spraying one's self with a garlic tea works, or even eating a clove of garlic (not sure how long before mosquito exposure). Does this have any affect on super mosquitos of the northern midwest? And how bad does a garlic spray smell? Mosquito repellants [eartheasy.com]
Re:Minnesota State Bird (Score:5, Interesting)
Being able to detect humans at longer... (Score:3, Interesting)
Air pollution?! (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Patents... (Score:4, Interesting)
1) Get a million dollars- give it all away to help other people with misquito repellents. Done. The only result is maybe more people now.
2) Get a million dollars- invest it in a new misquito repellent. Sell it and make ten million dollars. Give a million away as charity and invest the rest.
Short of stealing the money from "cold hearted capitalists" through taxes, after a very short period of time "giving it away for human happiness", the people giving the money away have no more money to give away. If they raise taxes too high, that source goes away too.
Any time you help a group of people that are a drain on society, the main result is a *larger* group of people that are a drain on society.
Don't get me wrong- I do charity work. I give money to charity. It makes me feel good to do these things. But it is given out of my *excess* money and *excess* time.
But logic is logic. You screw the producers in a group, and you end up with no producers. The key is balancing their needs against the rest of society. I think in the case of corporations and executives, that the rewards given them are *way* out of proportion. I think another group of people would take a lot less compensation to do 99% to 100% of the same thing the current batch are doing.
Re:Minnesota State Bird (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:"Mosquitoe"? (Score:3, Interesting)
Perhaps this might be more meaningful:
% echo colour | spell -b
% echo color | spell -b
color
% echo mosquito | spell -b
% echo mosquitoe | spell -b
mosquitoe
Ball game called... (Score:3, Interesting)
Some people tried coungint their bites after we were safely away, but I don't think it was possible to get an accurate count.
Re:Minnesota State Bird (Score:4, Interesting)
The worst is when they swarm and hover outside of all building openings because they can detect the CO2 inside and wait for humans to exit. It's nasty.
I am a huge outdoorsman and I pretty much refuse to do anything in the woods from May through September. The ticks (deer, as I've had lymes already) and the mosquitos are just unbearable. Now we have to deal with even *more* invasive poisionous plant species like Wild Parsnip [state.mn.us].
Minnesota sucks
On a related note... (Score:3, Interesting)
In rural counties, when the Greyhound or other transport truck drives through, they have to stop at regular intervals to clean the front of the vehicle off. The bugs are so thick, especially on poorly lit rural roads, that their dead carcasses tend to completely block the radiator grill (thanks to the fine-mesh anti-snow grill we all use up here).
The last time I took a greyhound through saskatchewan, we stopped after a few hours, the driver got out a stick, and knocked off a solid mat of dead insects, probably 1.5" thick, that covered the fronts of both side mirrors. It was heavy enough it made a "thump" when it hit the ground. The windshield wipers were hidden. The front grill was mostly covered, again almost 1" thick. He said that on differently designed busses with their altered aerodynamics, sometimes the bugs end up hitting the headlights, and frequent stops are required or you're soon driving in the dark.
They can be so vicious, animals locked in a small pen are driven mad. City children who go out to the country for a day have been bitten so bad they can't flex their arm or leg (presumably, rural kids are used to it, or have developed some armour-like skin that the farmers are keeping secret until the revolution). Falling asleep without repellant on is just not done, as you'd wake up with bites over your entire body, even in the middle of the city. Inadvertantly wandering into a marshy area with a mosquito breeding area and stirring them up can seem to block out the sun. Even at my old house, in a small park in the middle of the big city, if i didn't keep the grass trimmed, I couldn't walk from car to house without getting bitten a dozen times.
It's widely recognized as the severest hazing ritual, to take the young man, clothe him completely, tape him to a tree in a woody area, and then unzip and expose his manhood.
Not for the embarasement factor, or the fun, but because after a few hours his manhood will be unrecognizable and he will be crazy with the urge to scratch.
Many people have been bitten so severely, in normal, everyday circumstances, that they scratch themselves until they bleed.
But, yeah, these Greek ones can see colour. Oooohhh, scary.
Re:Minnesota State Bird (Score:2, Interesting)
I watched as the bugger used its pincers or mouth, to cut through the wires one by one until it had a hole the size of a dime in the screen. Damn!
Those who think screens are enough, think again.. Just don't motivate them to get past it.
By the way, THIS actually happened.
Re:Natural Resistance to Venom? (Score:3, Interesting)
I'm an a repository of useless information.
Mosquito Breeding Traps (Score:2, Interesting)