WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.760 --> 00:00:03.680 You're listening to an airwave media podcast. 2 00:00:12.080 --> 00:00:14.080 Monster House Presents. 3 00:00:14.679 --> 00:00:16.480 Monster Talk is proud to be a part of the 4 00:00:16.519 --> 00:00:21.719 airwave media family, home of such shows as The Daily 5 00:00:21.800 --> 00:00:28.320 Meditation Podcast, The Accidental Creative and I Know What Scares You. 6 00:00:28.879 --> 00:00:31.600 If you'd like to advertise on the show, contact sales 7 00:00:31.640 --> 00:00:39.159 at advertisedcast dot com. Human beings have a strange relationship 8 00:00:39.200 --> 00:00:42.799 with swamps. For much of history, cultures have viewed swamps 9 00:00:42.799 --> 00:00:47.520 as undesirable or even dangerous wastes of potential farmland. Real 10 00:00:47.640 --> 00:00:50.880 estate built on drain. Swamplant exists around the world, and 11 00:00:51.000 --> 00:00:53.799 until the latter third of the twentieth century, not many 12 00:00:53.880 --> 00:00:57.000 tears were shed over the departure of this kind of murky, dank, 13 00:00:57.560 --> 00:01:01.719 insect and reptile filled landscape. In the United States, our 14 00:01:01.799 --> 00:01:05.879 national capital was literally built by draining swampland, and it's 15 00:01:05.920 --> 00:01:09.000 a fairly recent thing for enough concern to collogists to 16 00:01:09.040 --> 00:01:11.959 try and get us to realize how vital and important 17 00:01:12.000 --> 00:01:16.079 these habitats actually are. Their campaign even gets down to 18 00:01:16.159 --> 00:01:19.719 language management, as marketing people have striven to get folks 19 00:01:19.719 --> 00:01:23.400 to say wetlands preferentially over swamp because so many people 20 00:01:23.439 --> 00:01:27.120 instinctively either fear, hate, or disregard such places without thought. 21 00:01:28.799 --> 00:01:32.280 And of course it didn't stop there. We also populated 22 00:01:32.280 --> 00:01:36.040 our swamps with monsters, and we still do. Cryptid author 23 00:01:36.120 --> 00:01:38.920 Lyle Blackburn has a whole book dedicated to swamp cryptis 24 00:01:38.959 --> 00:01:43.200 called Sinister Swamps, Monsters and Mysteries. From the Mayre, from 25 00:01:43.239 --> 00:01:46.799 Boggy Creek's falk Monster to the Honey Island swamp monster 26 00:01:47.200 --> 00:01:50.879 to the lizardmen of Skapeo or swamp folks see things 27 00:01:50.959 --> 00:01:55.040 in those dark and foreboding waters, the vines, the shadows, 28 00:01:55.519 --> 00:01:59.560 the unrecognized animal sounds, the water so black you can't 29 00:01:59.560 --> 00:02:03.120 see more than a foot down. Our minds filled those 30 00:02:03.159 --> 00:02:07.319 shadows and voids with sinister creatures, crawling death in the 31 00:02:07.359 --> 00:02:10.879 form of real animals like snakes and alligators, And where 32 00:02:10.919 --> 00:02:13.759 real creatures aren't enough, we make up new things, like 33 00:02:13.840 --> 00:02:17.000 humanoid swamp monsters of fiction that began in the nineteen 34 00:02:17.039 --> 00:02:22.199 forties with Theodore Sturgeon's incredible short story It. It was 35 00:02:22.240 --> 00:02:25.759 the inspiration for the heap for swamp Thing and eventually 36 00:02:25.800 --> 00:02:29.039 man Thing. Comic books answer to a reading public's desperate 37 00:02:29.080 --> 00:02:33.240 need for more swamp monsters. But it turns out that 38 00:02:33.319 --> 00:02:39.199 it wasn't humanoid plant monsters, or oversized reptiles or mandating vines, 39 00:02:39.400 --> 00:02:42.240 and not even quicksand that was the real danger in 40 00:02:42.280 --> 00:02:47.680 all those swamps. It was something smaller, something folks forever 41 00:02:47.800 --> 00:02:51.000 had thought was merely an annoyance, but it was something 42 00:02:51.000 --> 00:02:54.159 we couldn't escape, and it wanted to drink our blood. 43 00:02:54.960 --> 00:02:57.800 There's hardly a place on Earth where you could truly 44 00:02:57.879 --> 00:03:10.120 hide from this monster. It's actually quite unlike anything we've 45 00:03:10.120 --> 00:03:11.080 ever seen before. 46 00:03:13.240 --> 00:03:16.840 A giant, hairy creature party parts. 47 00:03:17.879 --> 00:03:20.960 In Luckness, a twenty four mile long bottomless lake in 48 00:03:21.000 --> 00:03:23.599 the Highlands of Scotland, in the creature known as the 49 00:03:23.680 --> 00:03:24.560 Luckness Monster. 50 00:03:46.879 --> 00:03:47.919 Monster tal. 51 00:03:49.439 --> 00:03:53.159 Welcome to Monster Talk, the science show about monsters. I'm 52 00:03:53.199 --> 00:03:57.960 Blake Smith and I'm Karen Stolsner. It's hard to believe 53 00:03:58.439 --> 00:04:02.879 just how recently mankind has realized the danger of the mosquito. 54 00:04:03.840 --> 00:04:07.599 These little insects are hands down the most dangerous animal 55 00:04:07.840 --> 00:04:11.000 known to man by now. Most people know that the 56 00:04:11.039 --> 00:04:14.680 primary disease vector for malaria, but that's not the only 57 00:04:14.840 --> 00:04:17.439 dangerous thing they carry. As we'll hear in this interview, 58 00:04:18.720 --> 00:04:22.160 when colonialism was the primary driver of the wealth of 59 00:04:22.199 --> 00:04:25.759 the British Empire. One huge problem that they struggled with 60 00:04:25.959 --> 00:04:29.279 was that their colonists kept coming down with tropical infections. 61 00:04:29.879 --> 00:04:33.800 Malaria in particular was devastating. A remedy for the disease 62 00:04:34.040 --> 00:04:36.319 came from the bark of a tree, which had been 63 00:04:36.399 --> 00:04:39.560 used by indigenous healers for hundreds of years. While this 64 00:04:39.680 --> 00:04:41.959 same remedy was used by the Europeans, it was not 65 00:04:42.000 --> 00:04:45.480 well understood and was the subject of intense scientific research. 66 00:04:46.240 --> 00:04:49.680 The particular substance in the bark was isolated chemically in 67 00:04:49.720 --> 00:04:53.160 eighteen twenty by two French chemists, but there was a 68 00:04:53.199 --> 00:04:56.560 tremendous push to find a way to create this substance 69 00:04:56.639 --> 00:04:59.439 artificially and to not need to rely on the slow 70 00:04:59.480 --> 00:05:01.720 life cycle of a tree in order to treat the 71 00:05:01.759 --> 00:05:04.839 many colonists who had no immunity to this terrible disease. 72 00:05:05.639 --> 00:05:09.399 That substance we now know is quinine. It is still 73 00:05:09.480 --> 00:05:13.079 used in malaria treatment today, but because it is very bitter, 74 00:05:13.319 --> 00:05:15.480 it was usually mixed with other liquids, and the British 75 00:05:15.519 --> 00:05:17.800 in particular came to mix it with tonic water and 76 00:05:17.879 --> 00:05:20.920 gin and perhaps a little on the nose. For the Brits, 77 00:05:21.160 --> 00:05:23.519 a bit of lime juice so even if you live 78 00:05:23.560 --> 00:05:27.680 in an area with no malaria, you've probably encountered quinine. 79 00:05:27.720 --> 00:05:31.079 I mention all this because something pretty amazing happened in 80 00:05:31.120 --> 00:05:34.879 that drive to find a synthetic malaria treatment. A nineteen 81 00:05:34.959 --> 00:05:37.639 year old chemistry student named William Perkin came home on 82 00:05:37.680 --> 00:05:40.959 a school holiday and decided to try and synthesize quinine 83 00:05:40.959 --> 00:05:45.439 from coal tar. This was a bold and perhaps ridiculous attempt, 84 00:05:45.600 --> 00:05:48.800 given his youth and inexperience, and as you might expect, 85 00:05:49.240 --> 00:05:53.000 the experiment was a complete failure. But when he went 86 00:05:53.040 --> 00:05:55.439 to clean up his equipment, he found he'd made a 87 00:05:55.439 --> 00:06:02.120 big mess, a big, absurdly purple mess. His failed attempt 88 00:06:02.120 --> 00:06:05.959 to make quinin had produced the first synthetic color, and 89 00:06:06.040 --> 00:06:10.279 one that was immediately and obviously valuable. Up until this point, 90 00:06:10.319 --> 00:06:13.360 purple was primarily created through a very time consuming, an 91 00:06:13.360 --> 00:06:17.000 expensive process that involved killing a particular kind of mollusk. 92 00:06:17.600 --> 00:06:21.360 With Perkins's new process, a bright, long lasting dye had 93 00:06:21.399 --> 00:06:24.879 been created, and he'd made his fortune. Not only that, 94 00:06:24.920 --> 00:06:28.040 but his discovery kicked off to the synthetic color industry 95 00:06:28.279 --> 00:06:30.639 that would be picked up by the German chemists and 96 00:06:30.680 --> 00:06:34.399 would literally change the way the world looks that in 97 00:06:34.480 --> 00:06:38.639 turn allowed the new science of color microscopy, improving the 98 00:06:38.639 --> 00:06:41.720 ability to see detail in microscopic samples by applying dyes 99 00:06:42.319 --> 00:06:46.439 to reach new insights and see amazing new details, which 100 00:06:46.560 --> 00:06:49.680 in turn led to an even more amazing discovery when 101 00:06:49.720 --> 00:06:52.319 it was found out that these dyes would sometimes kill 102 00:06:52.439 --> 00:06:57.079 some nasty microbes and leave other cells undamaged, which kicked 103 00:06:57.079 --> 00:07:01.000 off a new science we now call chemotherapy. All of 104 00:07:01.040 --> 00:07:05.480 this happens, and people still didn't know what was causing malaria. 105 00:07:05.920 --> 00:07:08.759 It wasn't until the very late eighteen hundreds, the last 106 00:07:08.759 --> 00:07:12.279 couple of decades, that convergent discoveries concluded that there was 107 00:07:12.319 --> 00:07:14.920 a parasite at the root of the disease and that 108 00:07:15.000 --> 00:07:18.639 the mosquito was what was spreading the parasite. It's been 109 00:07:18.639 --> 00:07:21.000 a little more than a century that we've known about 110 00:07:21.000 --> 00:07:24.519 how dangerous mosquitoes are, and in that time a huge 111 00:07:24.600 --> 00:07:28.000 number of quack cures, wacky theories, and dubious products have 112 00:07:28.079 --> 00:07:30.920 tried to alleviate the mosquito problem. So where do we 113 00:07:30.959 --> 00:07:35.120 stand today? How dangerous are these creatures now? Is there 114 00:07:35.199 --> 00:07:38.839 anything we can do to protect ourselves? Stick around and 115 00:07:38.839 --> 00:07:42.079 find out, as we're joined by doctor Louisa Messenger, who 116 00:07:42.120 --> 00:07:50.079 knows quite a bit about the world's most dangerous animal, monstrutal. 117 00:07:51.439 --> 00:07:54.519 So my name is doctor Louisa Messenger. I'm currently an 118 00:07:54.560 --> 00:07:57.319 assistant professor in the School of Public Health at the 119 00:07:57.399 --> 00:08:00.759 University of Nevada in Las Vegas. Now, I'm also the 120 00:08:00.800 --> 00:08:05.240 co director of the Powasitology and Vector Biology Laboetry. But 121 00:08:05.279 --> 00:08:09.480 my specialties are I'm a medical entomologist and parasitologist, and 122 00:08:09.519 --> 00:08:13.040 I spend most of my time working on improving methods 123 00:08:13.079 --> 00:08:17.319 of control and surveillance of insect born diseases, both regionally 124 00:08:17.360 --> 00:08:19.720 here in the United States as well as worldwide. 125 00:08:19.839 --> 00:08:21.680 Thank you so much for coming on the show. And 126 00:08:21.920 --> 00:08:24.920 the reason that I invited you on was that, I 127 00:08:24.959 --> 00:08:26.759 guess my son and I go for a walk every 128 00:08:26.839 --> 00:08:30.480 day it's summertime here in Denver, and we are just 129 00:08:30.519 --> 00:08:33.679 getting eaten alive by mozzies as we call them in Australia. 130 00:08:35.200 --> 00:08:39.639 But so I was just thinking about mosquitos in terms 131 00:08:39.679 --> 00:08:45.360 of being monstrous because they drink blood and because they bite, 132 00:08:45.399 --> 00:08:48.799 and they carry diseases like malaria, and so I just 133 00:08:48.799 --> 00:08:52.440 looked up mosquito experts and you kept coming up and 134 00:08:52.639 --> 00:08:55.799 I read the article that the Washington Post had where 135 00:08:56.000 --> 00:08:58.320 they spoke with you about this topic. So yeah, we 136 00:08:58.360 --> 00:09:00.360 wanted to bring you on the show. And as a 137 00:09:00.399 --> 00:09:04.639 first question, could you tell us some interesting information about 138 00:09:04.679 --> 00:09:08.519 the biology of mosquitos, So maybe what they eat, although 139 00:09:08.519 --> 00:09:10.320 we know that to some extent, but there are some 140 00:09:10.360 --> 00:09:14.559 surprises there too, I guess, and describe them, and some 141 00:09:14.720 --> 00:09:16.639 info about their distribution as well. 142 00:09:17.759 --> 00:09:23.279 Absolutely, well, you're not wrong. Mosquitoes definitely are monsters. One 143 00:09:23.279 --> 00:09:25.480 of the things I always ask my students when we 144 00:09:25.559 --> 00:09:28.559 first start talking about mosquitoes is what's the most dangerous 145 00:09:28.559 --> 00:09:29.120 animal on. 146 00:09:29.080 --> 00:09:30.279 The planet to humans? 147 00:09:30.960 --> 00:09:34.399 And a lot of the times I'll say sharks, you know, lions, 148 00:09:34.480 --> 00:09:38.159 bear attacks, or even other humans. But statistically it's the mosquito. 149 00:09:38.480 --> 00:09:41.759 The female mosquito kills them as humans every year. So 150 00:09:41.799 --> 00:09:45.200 you're definitely not wrong about them being monstrous. So the 151 00:09:45.200 --> 00:09:48.159 words of mosquito, and basically mosquitoes are just a family 152 00:09:48.240 --> 00:09:52.320 of small flying insects. There's about three six hundred species. 153 00:09:52.720 --> 00:09:56.519 But the word mosquito itself, it's Spanish or Portuguese, it 154 00:09:56.600 --> 00:09:59.480 just means a little fly, so musca and then ito 155 00:09:59.679 --> 00:10:00.639 means little fly. 156 00:10:01.000 --> 00:10:04.919 That's why we call them mosquitos. You're not wrong, oh yeah. 157 00:10:04.799 --> 00:10:07.840 About them being especially prevalent in the summer. But I 158 00:10:07.840 --> 00:10:10.559 guess the bad news is that mosquitoes occur all over 159 00:10:10.600 --> 00:10:13.879 the planet. There's only a very few number of isolated 160 00:10:13.919 --> 00:10:17.879 islands and Antarctica where we don't get mosquitoes. We get 161 00:10:17.919 --> 00:10:20.480 them down at sea level, you get them at elevations 162 00:10:20.519 --> 00:10:24.480 of over five thousand meters. Mosquitoes are really adaptable for a. 163 00:10:24.519 --> 00:10:26.639 Very broad range of environments. 164 00:10:27.279 --> 00:10:28.759 Most of the time we think about them in terms 165 00:10:28.759 --> 00:10:30.879 of the tropics and a lot of disease when it's 166 00:10:30.879 --> 00:10:33.720 hot and humid, but you also get plenty of mosquitos 167 00:10:33.840 --> 00:10:38.159 in deserts, in the Arctic, tundra, salt marshes, different ocean 168 00:10:38.200 --> 00:10:40.480 and tidal zones as well. So I guess that's the 169 00:10:40.480 --> 00:10:42.639 bad news is there's very few places on the planet 170 00:10:42.639 --> 00:10:45.720 that you can go to escape mosquitoes. And in terms 171 00:10:45.759 --> 00:10:48.600 of their actual diet. So it's the female. She's the culprit. 172 00:10:48.720 --> 00:10:51.879 She's the one who is adapted for blood feeding, and 173 00:10:51.919 --> 00:10:55.159 now she takes a blood meal approximately every three days, 174 00:10:55.440 --> 00:10:57.840 and every three days she's going to digest that blood 175 00:10:58.240 --> 00:10:59.840 using the nutrients to grow eggs. 176 00:11:00.000 --> 00:11:02.039 And then she's going to lay those eggs, and. 177 00:11:02.000 --> 00:11:04.320 She's going to do that for about three to four weeks, 178 00:11:04.360 --> 00:11:08.360 depending on the species. The male mosquitos their only role 179 00:11:08.480 --> 00:11:11.000 is to mate with the female once she emerges as 180 00:11:11.000 --> 00:11:13.320 an adult, and then they'll just sugar feed for the 181 00:11:13.320 --> 00:11:13.639 rest of. 182 00:11:13.639 --> 00:11:16.480 Their life cycle. The females will also take sugar. 183 00:11:16.559 --> 00:11:19.200 This is usually from plants, from flowers, from other vegetation, 184 00:11:19.559 --> 00:11:22.159 but she really needs that blood meal regularly to be 185 00:11:22.200 --> 00:11:24.360 able to survive and to reproduce the next generation. 186 00:11:25.399 --> 00:11:27.480 My nine year old son just told me that I 187 00:11:27.480 --> 00:11:30.480 had no idea. I don't know how he found out 188 00:11:30.519 --> 00:11:32.440 about that either, but yeah, that was news to me 189 00:11:32.519 --> 00:11:36.080 after getting bitten for decades and just not knowing it 190 00:11:36.120 --> 00:11:38.200 was the female the species that did that. 191 00:11:38.440 --> 00:11:43.519 Well, that's interesting is that is the blood meal particularly 192 00:11:43.639 --> 00:11:47.039 useful because of like the protein content or something else 193 00:11:47.080 --> 00:11:49.559 about it, as opposed to I didn't actually know they 194 00:11:49.600 --> 00:11:52.440 did sugar content. That makes sense. I was literally just 195 00:11:52.440 --> 00:11:54.519 telling my kids the other day. Almost every life form 196 00:11:54.559 --> 00:11:57.879 can enjoy sugar they need to, but other stuff not 197 00:11:57.919 --> 00:11:58.360 so much. 198 00:12:00.039 --> 00:12:04.399 Absolutely, it's because to produce eggs, it's very energetically expensive 199 00:12:04.480 --> 00:12:06.639 for a female mosquito I mean it's the same for 200 00:12:07.360 --> 00:12:09.080 reproduction in almost all organisms. 201 00:12:09.120 --> 00:12:10.080 It takes quite a lot of. 202 00:12:10.120 --> 00:12:13.679 Nutrients and energy to produce the next generation, and so 203 00:12:13.720 --> 00:12:16.320 she will digest the proteins and the components of the 204 00:12:16.360 --> 00:12:19.960 blood to produce vitilogenin it's a type of egg yolk 205 00:12:20.000 --> 00:12:21.600 that she then produces her eggs with. 206 00:12:22.039 --> 00:12:23.039 She will take. 207 00:12:22.879 --> 00:12:26.159 Sugar though, because that's important for flight, for dispersal, for 208 00:12:26.279 --> 00:12:28.320 matine as well, So she does need other types of 209 00:12:28.440 --> 00:12:31.960 energy resources, but that loo's crucial for egg production. 210 00:12:32.279 --> 00:12:34.440 Well, if you don't mind, another follow up this is, 211 00:12:34.559 --> 00:12:38.120 have you have there been experiments done, like if you 212 00:12:38.159 --> 00:12:41.200 provide them with plenty of protein, like a liquid diet, 213 00:12:41.279 --> 00:12:45.399 would they still prefer blood or would they not need 214 00:12:45.440 --> 00:12:47.080 it therefore not seek it. 215 00:12:48.360 --> 00:12:49.639 That's a great question. 216 00:12:50.639 --> 00:12:52.600 I don't know to my knowledge off the top of 217 00:12:52.639 --> 00:12:57.600 my head, but they have so evolutionarily adapted for blood feeding. 218 00:12:57.679 --> 00:12:58.879 I would be surprised. 219 00:12:59.000 --> 00:13:01.399 I think that's still always going to seek out At 220 00:13:01.480 --> 00:13:03.360 least the female mosquitos are going to seek out blood 221 00:13:03.399 --> 00:13:05.879 as that ultimate sort of nutrient. 222 00:13:05.639 --> 00:13:08.799 Rich evolution is hard to fight. 223 00:13:11.120 --> 00:13:15.759 And her mouth parts are so well adapted, essentially like 224 00:13:15.759 --> 00:13:19.600 a hypodermic syringe, the perbosters, her mouth parts, they're just 225 00:13:19.639 --> 00:13:22.559 perfect for blood feeding. Again, that just reflects many millennia 226 00:13:22.600 --> 00:13:25.320 of evolution. So, like you said, it's hard to fight that. 227 00:13:26.519 --> 00:13:30.240 So they're vectors for lots of diseases. Now, my understanding 228 00:13:30.360 --> 00:13:33.720 is that this is actually, all things considered a relatively 229 00:13:33.759 --> 00:13:38.159 new discovery, maybe like the eighteen nineties early nineteen hundreds 230 00:13:37.960 --> 00:13:44.360 that but what diseases do they carry? And I guess 231 00:13:44.440 --> 00:13:47.399 I'm curious. It's like how the world adapted to finding 232 00:13:47.440 --> 00:13:50.840 out this is such an important vector for these diseases. 233 00:13:51.159 --> 00:13:52.799 I guess it depends where you are in the world, 234 00:13:53.120 --> 00:13:56.519 will depend exactly what mosquito disease you're most at risk at. 235 00:13:56.879 --> 00:14:00.240 In terms of the statistics and in terms of human health, 236 00:14:00.399 --> 00:14:03.480 malaria really is the number one killer in terms of 237 00:14:03.519 --> 00:14:06.759 mosquito borne diseases because it's an acute infection and it 238 00:14:06.799 --> 00:14:09.960 can be fatal very quickly. In fact, the very worrying 239 00:14:10.000 --> 00:14:12.759 statistic we all throw around a lot is that a 240 00:14:12.840 --> 00:14:15.840 child under the age of five dies of malaria every minute. 241 00:14:16.279 --> 00:14:18.480 So there's more than six thousand deaths. 242 00:14:18.200 --> 00:14:21.120 From malaria and two hundred and forty nine million cases 243 00:14:21.159 --> 00:14:25.480 worldwide now historically, though malaria has been a global issue. 244 00:14:25.759 --> 00:14:29.039 It's largely concentrated now in parts of Sub Saharan Africa 245 00:14:29.360 --> 00:14:32.279 and small pockets in parts of the world like Venezuela, 246 00:14:32.360 --> 00:14:35.000 Papua New Guinea, and India. But we used to have 247 00:14:35.080 --> 00:14:37.840 malaria here in the United States up until the nineteen fifties. 248 00:14:38.120 --> 00:14:40.600 That's the very reason that the CDC exists in Atlanta 249 00:14:40.840 --> 00:14:44.279 was to try to combat and eventually eliminate malaria. But 250 00:14:44.799 --> 00:14:47.759 in places that malaria isn't the predominant mosquito borne disease, 251 00:14:47.879 --> 00:14:50.840 we've got plenty of others. So malaria is a type 252 00:14:50.840 --> 00:14:53.120 of parasite. But then the ones that we're dealing with 253 00:14:53.480 --> 00:14:55.240 globally and also in the United. 254 00:14:55.039 --> 00:14:56.600 States are arboviruses. 255 00:14:56.799 --> 00:15:00.720 So these are viruses that are transmitted by mosquitoes species 256 00:15:01.039 --> 00:15:03.480 than the ones that transmit malaria. And you'll have heard 257 00:15:03.480 --> 00:15:06.200 of these. These are like West Nile Dengi virus. We 258 00:15:06.240 --> 00:15:10.120 may remember the Zeca virus in twenty sixteen, chicken. 259 00:15:09.840 --> 00:15:11.200 Gunya yellow fever. 260 00:15:11.759 --> 00:15:14.960 There's plenty of these viral infections which are quite difficult 261 00:15:15.000 --> 00:15:17.480 to diagnose. A lot of them don't necessarily have a 262 00:15:17.559 --> 00:15:20.919 vaccine or any good treatment options. But they can be 263 00:15:21.000 --> 00:15:23.799 quite severe and sometimes fatal as well. 264 00:15:23.960 --> 00:15:28.200 So you mentioned different species, and in the articles where 265 00:15:28.240 --> 00:15:30.879 you were interviewed, you'd also mentioned it a new species, 266 00:15:30.919 --> 00:15:32.799 So that's a worrying thing. Can you tell us about 267 00:15:32.799 --> 00:15:34.879 this new species of mosquito? 268 00:15:35.840 --> 00:15:38.919 So that's only a new species here where we're based 269 00:15:38.960 --> 00:15:42.360 in Las Vegas, In Nevada, we're basically a desert and 270 00:15:42.480 --> 00:15:47.240 historically haven't had as many populations of mosquitoes and species 271 00:15:47.279 --> 00:15:49.559 of mosquitoes as we do now. But what I was 272 00:15:49.600 --> 00:15:53.320 referring to is Adies egypti, which is spread all across 273 00:15:53.360 --> 00:15:56.559 the tropics and subtropics, and it's the major vector of 274 00:15:57.559 --> 00:16:01.320 chicken gunya zeka yellow fever as well. 275 00:16:01.600 --> 00:16:03.799 We're concerned about it here because. 276 00:16:03.480 --> 00:16:07.759 It invaded the Las Vegas area in twenty seventeen. Initially 277 00:16:07.799 --> 00:16:10.720 it was just reproducing in maybe five or six ZIP codes, 278 00:16:11.000 --> 00:16:13.639 but last year it became explosive and it spread all 279 00:16:13.679 --> 00:16:16.360 across the valley to more than forty six ZIP codes, 280 00:16:16.519 --> 00:16:20.039 and we're trying to understand exactly what events triggered that, 281 00:16:20.720 --> 00:16:23.519 and now, unfortunately the community are being bitten during the 282 00:16:23.600 --> 00:16:26.120 day's a day biting mosquito and a lot of us 283 00:16:26.159 --> 00:16:28.720 react quite badly to it as well. You'll get quite 284 00:16:28.840 --> 00:16:33.399 nasty welts. It's unpleasant. It's not transmitting any disease here 285 00:16:33.480 --> 00:16:36.559 in Vegas that we know about yet, but we have 286 00:16:36.720 --> 00:16:41.240 had DENGI in nearby Arizona quite recently, so we are 287 00:16:41.279 --> 00:16:44.679 concerned that because our mosquito species here are changing and 288 00:16:44.799 --> 00:16:47.720 adapting and spreading, that's also then going to change our 289 00:16:47.799 --> 00:16:51.720 risk of disease here as well. But dengis a eadies 290 00:16:51.720 --> 00:16:55.919 Egyptian about massive culprit worldwide. I don't know if you've 291 00:16:55.919 --> 00:16:57.919 been following in the news that there's been more than 292 00:16:58.000 --> 00:17:01.720 five million cases of dengy in Brazil already. Large parts 293 00:17:01.759 --> 00:17:05.559 of Central America and South America are like Peru, are 294 00:17:05.599 --> 00:17:09.359 also experiencing really severe outbreaks this year, and that's vectored 295 00:17:09.359 --> 00:17:12.319 by adies adipty. So while it's not necessarily causing disease 296 00:17:12.359 --> 00:17:14.720 in my back garden, yet we're worried about it, and 297 00:17:14.759 --> 00:17:16.599 then the rest of the world is already having to 298 00:17:16.640 --> 00:17:18.640 deal with this as an issue. 299 00:17:18.839 --> 00:17:21.680 You really surprise me because when I think about mosquitoes, 300 00:17:21.680 --> 00:17:24.119 I always think about the needing standing water. When I 301 00:17:24.119 --> 00:17:26.839 think about Vegas, I don't think about standing water. But 302 00:17:27.640 --> 00:17:28.920 it must be there somewhere. 303 00:17:29.440 --> 00:17:29.559 Well. 304 00:17:29.640 --> 00:17:30.680 No, Well, that's the. 305 00:17:30.680 --> 00:17:33.480 Problem with adies agypty is it can breed in incredibly 306 00:17:33.599 --> 00:17:37.000 small containers. It breeds in artificial containers. It can be 307 00:17:37.000 --> 00:17:40.000 as small as the you know, cap on a bottle 308 00:17:40.000 --> 00:17:43.079 of Coca cola, for example. It lays her act she 309 00:17:43.200 --> 00:17:45.480 lays her eggs just above the water line, and then 310 00:17:45.480 --> 00:17:48.680 when the water rises, those eggs will then begin to hatch. 311 00:17:49.039 --> 00:17:52.440 Those eggs are also desiccation and drought resistance. You can 312 00:17:52.920 --> 00:17:55.880 eggs that have been around for nine plus months, and 313 00:17:55.920 --> 00:17:58.640 we do that quite frequently in our laboratory. But that 314 00:17:58.720 --> 00:18:01.839 makes it a perfect insect vector to spread all over 315 00:18:01.839 --> 00:18:04.279 the world. It needs such a small amount of water, 316 00:18:04.440 --> 00:18:07.640 and it can persist over winter or during periods where 317 00:18:07.680 --> 00:18:12.000 there isn't necessarily any available standing water. But unfortunately we 318 00:18:12.000 --> 00:18:14.720 do have plenty of artificial water bodies. We kind of 319 00:18:14.720 --> 00:18:17.039 bring this on ourselves a little bit in our golf 320 00:18:17.079 --> 00:18:20.279 courses here, in some of our more elaborate water features 321 00:18:20.319 --> 00:18:23.359 in our communities on the Vegas Strip as well. 322 00:18:23.720 --> 00:18:25.480 So you're right, we're a desert. 323 00:18:25.480 --> 00:18:28.519 We shouldn't really have that much standing water, but we 324 00:18:28.039 --> 00:18:32.400 we make them ourselves. And then we also had abnormal rains. 325 00:18:32.400 --> 00:18:35.240 For the last few years, we've had more rainfall here 326 00:18:35.279 --> 00:18:38.200 than we have had historically, so we're definitely seeing the 327 00:18:38.200 --> 00:18:41.039 effects of climate change and our kind of macro environment 328 00:18:41.119 --> 00:18:42.799 here in Suddn, Nevada. 329 00:18:42.920 --> 00:18:46.519 As much as possible, we like to help people minimize 330 00:18:46.559 --> 00:18:49.440 nonsense and you know, increase their's sort of scientific awareness. 331 00:18:49.480 --> 00:18:53.799 And I know science is always provisional, like we're always 332 00:18:53.880 --> 00:18:58.960 learning new things, but I can't think of a pest 333 00:18:59.000 --> 00:19:05.039 related feel that's as full of nonsense as mosquitoes and 334 00:19:05.079 --> 00:19:08.079 how how to repel them and folkal or around what 335 00:19:08.400 --> 00:19:10.480 attracts them and what doesn't. And you know, there's all 336 00:19:10.480 --> 00:19:13.839 these ideas out there about people think they know mosquitos, 337 00:19:13.880 --> 00:19:15.839 and obviously there's many species that even if some of 338 00:19:15.880 --> 00:19:17.319 these are treat they may not be true for everything. 339 00:19:17.319 --> 00:19:21.119 But in general, what sort of things attract mosquitoes? And 340 00:19:21.160 --> 00:19:23.400 here I'm thinking about human hosts and what sort of 341 00:19:23.400 --> 00:19:24.599 things actually repel them. 342 00:19:26.039 --> 00:19:28.759 So we get asked this question a lot, and I 343 00:19:29.559 --> 00:19:31.759 I have to debunk quite a lot of sort of 344 00:19:31.799 --> 00:19:33.319 hearsay and anecdotes. 345 00:19:33.359 --> 00:19:37.480 But in general, female mosquitos, she's basically after your blood. 346 00:19:37.839 --> 00:19:39.799 So what she's going to do is try to locate 347 00:19:39.839 --> 00:19:42.880 you as easily and efficiently as possible, and she'll do 348 00:19:42.920 --> 00:19:47.400 that using olfactory receptors on her antenny. She's going to 349 00:19:47.480 --> 00:19:49.880 use that to try to smell you. She's going to 350 00:19:49.920 --> 00:19:52.559 be picking up things like carbon dioxide in our breath, 351 00:19:53.160 --> 00:19:59.200 human sweat, lactic acid, skin volatiles, octanal phenols, and sometimes 352 00:19:59.200 --> 00:19:59.880 your body heat. 353 00:20:00.799 --> 00:20:01.160 Some people. 354 00:20:01.240 --> 00:20:04.000 Also, if you have very sweaty, smelly, cheesy like feet, 355 00:20:04.319 --> 00:20:06.119 she may also use that to try to locate you. 356 00:20:06.400 --> 00:20:08.039 And she's going to do that essentially to try and 357 00:20:08.039 --> 00:20:11.400 get a blood meal as fast as possible. The best 358 00:20:11.440 --> 00:20:13.559 thing that you can possibly do, which is what I 359 00:20:13.559 --> 00:20:15.559 always tell everybody, and that's not really what they want 360 00:20:15.599 --> 00:20:17.599 to hear, is to try to use some kind of 361 00:20:17.640 --> 00:20:21.640 effective repellent, some kind of topical insecticide that you apply 362 00:20:21.799 --> 00:20:25.400 to your skin. These ideally should be approved by some 363 00:20:25.480 --> 00:20:28.839 regulatory agency like the US Environmental Protection. 364 00:20:28.599 --> 00:20:29.680 Agency, the EPA. 365 00:20:30.359 --> 00:20:32.680 But these chemicals they're not that nice. There will be 366 00:20:32.759 --> 00:20:37.519 chemicals like deet picaridin Citronella IL thirty five thirty five. 367 00:20:38.240 --> 00:20:40.160 You can have some slightly nicer ones like oil of 368 00:20:40.279 --> 00:20:43.960 lemon eucalyptus. But people always tell me, I don't want 369 00:20:43.960 --> 00:20:46.200 to use chemicals. I don't want to put something noxious 370 00:20:46.279 --> 00:20:48.559 or toxic on my skin. What about if I eat 371 00:20:48.559 --> 00:20:53.319 some garlic or I, you know, have some cinnamon and maybe, 372 00:20:53.359 --> 00:20:57.319 anecdotically sometimes that can potentially repel mosquitoes or have a 373 00:20:57.400 --> 00:21:00.240 slightly interfere with her ability to find you. But the 374 00:21:00.279 --> 00:21:04.119 problem as a scientist is if it's not robust, reproducible 375 00:21:04.279 --> 00:21:07.440 data that's really backed up, we really I can't advocate 376 00:21:07.480 --> 00:21:08.799 for you to do that. If you think it may 377 00:21:08.799 --> 00:21:11.759 work for you, okay, that's fantastic, but we know that 378 00:21:11.799 --> 00:21:13.799 these tried and true insecticides do work. 379 00:21:13.839 --> 00:21:14.440 That's why they. 380 00:21:14.400 --> 00:21:16.720 Are approved, and they're really easy to get hold of 381 00:21:16.799 --> 00:21:17.920 over the counter. 382 00:21:19.200 --> 00:21:20.200 In terms of what can alter. 383 00:21:20.279 --> 00:21:22.079 Because I also get a lot of people asking me, well, 384 00:21:22.079 --> 00:21:25.079 I'm a mosquito magnet, or mosquitos never touched me, but 385 00:21:25.079 --> 00:21:26.839 they touch my you know, they'll eat my husband, you 386 00:21:26.880 --> 00:21:27.559 know that kind of thing. 387 00:21:28.119 --> 00:21:30.960 There's definitely some evidence that people smell. 388 00:21:30.680 --> 00:21:34.759 A little bit differently to different mosquitoes, but it's usually 389 00:21:34.839 --> 00:21:38.759 just what's happening physiologically with you. So are you particularly sweaty? 390 00:21:38.839 --> 00:21:40.960 Are you running a bit hot that day? Maybe you've 391 00:21:41.000 --> 00:21:45.119 had a beer, increased body temperatures, and indicator for mosquitoes 392 00:21:45.160 --> 00:21:48.680 to kind of find you the surface microbiome, whatever's on 393 00:21:48.720 --> 00:21:51.799 your skin at the moment. That will also influence just 394 00:21:51.799 --> 00:21:55.359 how good you smell to the insects, particularly mosquitoes. 395 00:21:56.000 --> 00:21:56.960 I'll read these articles. 396 00:21:57.000 --> 00:21:59.480 I wash with this soap and that will prevent a 397 00:21:59.599 --> 00:22:02.640 mosquito from biting you. Or apply this type of coconut 398 00:22:02.720 --> 00:22:05.839 smelling cream and that works well as well. But some 399 00:22:05.880 --> 00:22:08.519 of those things can work to an extent, but what 400 00:22:08.559 --> 00:22:11.920 they're really doing is just changing your microorganisms on your 401 00:22:11.920 --> 00:22:13.720