mosquitos

The World Mosquito Program is about to start construction on a mass rearing facility—the biggest in the world—in Curitiba. “And we believe that will allow us to essentially cover most of urban Brazil within the next 10 years,” Callahan says. There are also other mosquito-based approaches in the works. The UK company Oxitec has been providing genetically modified “friendly” mosquito eggs to Indaiatuba, Brazil, since 2018. The insects that hatch—all males—don’t bite. And when they mate, their female offspring don’t…

Researchers have chanced upon a bacteria naturally present in the gut of mosquitoes that inhibits the growth of a parasite that causes the deadliest form of malaria. Unlikely to produce resistance, the bacteria could be easily introduced in the field to complement existing malaria eradication strategies.The mosquito-borne disease malaria is caused by five protozoan parasites, with Plasmodium falciparum being the deadliest among them, and the most prevalent on the African continent. Unlike its protozoan relatives, P.…

We’ve all been bitten by a mosquito at one point or another. And, if you have, then that mosquito was a female, as male mosquitos don’t have strong enough mouth parts to pierce the skin and suck our blood. Instead, they survive off plant nectar. However, newly discovered amber fragments have revealed that mosquito evolution may have changed how these insects survive and what they eat.Mosquitos have survived for millions of years. We’ve discovered several of these little blood-sucking insects inside fossilized…

As the planet warms, mosquitoes are slowly migrating to higher places — and bringing malaria to populations not used to dealing with the potentially deadly disease.Inspiration Behind Immortal Longings | io9 InterviewClimate Connections is a collaboration between Grist and the Associated Press that explores how a changing climate is accelerating the spread of infectious diseases around the world, and how mitigation efforts demand a collective, global response. Read more here.Researchers have documented the insects making…

Research indicates that certain individuals truly are more attractive to mosquitoes due to specific skin odors. These odors, produced by fatty acids present in sebum (the oily substance that moisturizes skin), influence mosquito behavior.Some people are more attractive to mosquitos than others, and new research is starting to show why. This Reactions episode dives into the chemistry of the molecules on our skin that make some of us so much more appealing to these pesky insects. It also reveals which products we can use to…

At least four people in Florida and one in Texas have been diagnosed with malaria that they must have caught near where they live—because, according to health officials, none of them traveled outside the US or their own states. The very unusual discovery has left infectious disease specialists wondering: Who else might be ill, and will local doctors recognize what’s wrong?Malaria isn’t completely unprecedented in the US: About 2,000 residents contract it every year, but almost always because they traveled to a place where…

A few mosquitos in Florida have tested positive for the the parasite that causes malaria. The finding follows multiple confirmed human cases of the disease—four in Florida and one in Texas—believed to be the first domestically acquired instances of malaria in the U.S. in 20 years. The newly reported mosquito test results additionally confirm that the dangerous disease is spreading locally, from insects to people, in part of the Sunshine State.What is One Change Mark Zuckerberg Should Make to His Social Platforms? |…

The Current9:17Releasing millions of modified mosquitos to fight dengue feverRead transcribed audioIt may sound like the premise for a horror movie, or a biblical plague, but the World Mosquito Program plans to release five billion mosquitos into Brazil. And the hope is they will help save lives.The billions of bugs will be released with a bacteria called Wolbachia, all in an effort to slow the transmission of dengue fever in the country. " you see the reductions in disease transmission, it doesn't seem like a horror…

Scientists have long warned that climate change would push species into new territories, with the march of disease-carrying mosquitos among their gravest concerns.But this is not some theoretical future threat. Mosquitos that transmit malaria have been moving into warming areas for over a century in Africa, according to a new study.Georgetown University biologist Colin Carlson and colleagues used one of the most comprehensive datasets ever compiled by medical entomologists to track the outer reaches of mosquito…

The world’s deadliest animal is a picky eater. Because they transmit viral diseases like Zika and chikungunya, and the parasites that cause malaria, mosquitoes like blood-sucking Aedes aegypti are responsible for over 700,000 deaths worldwide every year.But in Omid Veiseh’s lab at Rice University, his team of bioengineers was struggling to get mosquitoes to eat. Typically, researchers study mosquitoe feeding by letting them bite live animals—lab mice, or grad students and postdocs who offer up their arms for science.…