The incognito Blog
Mr Anti Mosquito himself has made a recent short film on the efficacy of Deet.
Mr Anti Mosquito on the latest research pertaining to Deet and its uses today
There is a lot going on with mosquitoes at the moment so I thought a quick update would be in order. Firstly, Doctors have complained to ABTA about last minute holiday makers being unprepared and bringing back malaria as an unwanted souvenir; and not just any malaria either! Three people all on the same tour contracted Plasmodium falciparum, the most deadly form! Apparently the doctors want health warnings on the lastminute ads!
That part dealt with everything up to about 1900. This part covers developments made in the last century, which saw some of the most advanced techniques employed to repel biting insects as well as some very bizarre ones.
Don’t let this cold snap get you too down as the flipside will inevitably be a long, hot summer like the one we just had. It may not seem like it now and you may not want to know this but it is very likely that from an insect bite perspective, next summer will be the best on record. These long, cold, dark months mean mosquitoes and other biting insects will be better equipped and more able to proliferate and more so than last summer.
Cold snaps such as the one we are currently sitting in the middle of weed out weaker specimens of biting insects, leaving only the strongest and best adapted for when the weather eventually thaws out.
Mosquitoes are one of the most successful organisms on the planet. Specimens that are practically identical both genetically and physically with today’s species have been dated back to 210 millions years. From whichever form they started as, they have developed and evolved to successfully co-exist with all of the various incarnations of planet dominating organisms during the same time period and successfully continue today.
From a malarial point of view, the most recent estimates for malarial infections from mosquito bites are in the region of 250 million cases a year. Of these, roughly 1 million people die because of the disease they spread. The general thinking when combating malaria, is taking out the vector will remove exposure to the malarial plasmodium. Recent findings however are proving this could be more difficult than we first imagined.
This weeks post is set around an article from the Guardian on the 12th of November. It was written about the possibility of ridding the world of dengue fever. Interestingly, the same approach could also successfully combat malaria.
If you did not read the article, a group of scientists mean to genetically modify the male mosquito to be entirely dependent on an antibiotic tetracycline – a drug administered to the mosquitoes in the lab. The male mosquitoes die within a few days if they do not receive this drug and so, wouldn’t survive out in the wild as long as they normally would. They would however survive long enough to mate and pass on this modification.