mosquitos Archives - Amazing Health Advances

8 new weapons in the anti-mosquito arsenal

The AHA! Team — Thu, 18 Jul 2024 08:48:05 +0000

Abigail Klein Leichman via Israel21c – Cases of West Nile virus highlight the urgency of dealing with disease-carrying mosquito populations, which are only growing… Cases of West Nile virus in areas of Israel and other countries this summer highlight the urgent need for solutions against female mosquitoes, which are the ones that bite to get blood that helps them produce eggs. If a mosquito becomes infected with a virus from a person or animal it bites, the virus then multiplies in its body. Then the insect becomes a vector, transmitting viruses through saliva deposited when biting your skin. The American Mosquito Control Association estimates that more than 1 million people die each year from mosquito-borne diseases including West Nile, malaria, dengue, Zika, yellow fever and more. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) predicts a rise of these diseases in many parts of North America due to the warming climate that allows mosquitoes to thrive. Andrea Ammon, director of the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control, said, “Europe is already seeing how climate change is creating more favorable conditions for invasive mosquitoes to spread into previously unaffected areas and infect more people with diseases such as dengue.” Here’s an overview of ways in which Israeli scientists and entrepreneurs are working to solve this growing problem. In the lab A highly effective, yet natural, skin-coating repellent offering both mechanical and chemical protection is in advanced stages of development at Hebrew University. The formula contains indole, a fragrant extract from flowers, and cellulose nanocrystals (CNC), an abundant renewable plant substance. The project grew out of a research collaboration among PhD student Daniel Voignac from the Department of Applied Physics and Center for Nanoscience and Nanotechnology; Prof. Yossi Paltiel; Prof. Jonathan Bohbot, head of the university’s Neurobiology Of Insect Olfaction Lab; serial inventor/entrepreneur Prof. Oded Shoseyov and PhD student Evyatar Sar-Shalom.

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8 Simple Ways You Can Help Beneficial Bugs Survive

The AHA! Team — Fri, 24 May 2024 08:04:28 +0000

Abigail Klein Leichman via Israel21c – ‘Good’ insects like bees and parasitoids are essential to our existence but their survival is threatened. Here’s what you can do assure their future. Mosquitoes can be dangerous. Flies are annoying. Cockroaches are disgusting. But not all bugs are bad. On the contrary, many types of insects are essential to our existence. And some, including the bees that pollinate our food crops, are in danger. According to the Daily Climate, “every year there are slightly fewer butterflies, fewer bumblebees — fewer of almost all the myriad little beasts that make the world go round.” A recent study found that insect populations on land are decreasing by 0.92 percent per year. That would mean 24% fewer insects in 30 years. Some scientists fear this decline could damage ecosystems beyond the point of recovery. A Canadian study in 2020 found that North American bumblebee populations have nearly halved, and European bumblebees decreased by 17%. So, what can we do to preserve beneficial insects, even if we are not scientists or agronomists? We asked Tamar Keasar, a professor of insect ecology and behavior at the Department of Biology and the Environment on the Oranim campus of the University of Haifa. Her lab studies pollination ecology and biological control in Israel’s agricultural and natural areas. Keasar suggests eight simple actions you take in and around your own home. Share these tips with family, friends and neighbors, to conserve beneficial insects near our homes, and to enjoy their amazing ecological services. 1. Provide nesting places for bees “We are all familiar with honeybees. But there are many other kinds of bees that help pollinate our crops and wildflowers. Israel has more than a thousand species of wild bees,” Keasar says. “Unlike honeybees, most wild bees do not live in colonies. Instead, each female bee makes her own nest where she lays eggs. Some wild bees nest in the soil, and others nest within dry twigs, old walls and even snail shells,” she explains. “By exposing some sunny, dry ground in your backyard, you can create a bee-friendly nesting area. Or you can set up bunches of reeds or even drinking straws to create a ‘bee hotel’ in any outdoor area.” 2. Treat swarms gently “A honeybee swarm may appear near your home or in your garden. This happens when large groups of bees leave the hive where they grew up, and search for a new place to settle. Don’t panic! While you probably don’t want the bees to remain next to your home, many beekeepers would love to have them,” says Keasar. Contact your local beekeepers’ association or bee rescue volunteers, who know how to capture and remove the swarm carefully. 3. Grow plants for bees “Bees get their entire nutrition from flowers. In hot and dry countries such as Israel, flowering plants are rare in the summer and fall, so bees may go hungry. But you can help,” says Keasar. “By growing summer- and autumn-flowering plants, you can tide bees over these difficult seasons. Local plants with nectar- and pollen-rich flowers are best. If you live in Israel, consider planting a carob or a tamarisk tree.” 4. Grow a variety of plants for parasitoid wasps Parasitoid wasps are tiny insects — most are smaller than 1/16th of an inch, or 2 millimeters – and they do not sting humans. “Despite being very diverse and abundant, we often don’t notice parasitoids because of their small size,” says Keasar. “Yet parasitoids are important beneficial insects because they help control pests that infest our food crops and gardens. The young stages of parasitoids wasps feed on other insects, such as aphids or moths — many of which are crop pests,” she says. “The adults, on the other hand, often eat flower nectar and this improves their survival and reproduction. Unlike bees, parasitoids usually feed from small shallow flowers that they can access with their tiny mouthparts. They will thrive on a small bed of flowering buckwheat or coriander in your backyard or balcony.” 5. Diversify your garden “Humans need a varied diet to obtain all the nutrients they need, and so do beneficial insects. For example, bees need to feed on pollen from different plants to achieve the correct balance between different types of fatty acids,” Keasar explains. While many modern farms have huge fields dominated by a single crop, you can provide a healthier balanced diet for bees and parasitoids by growing mixtures of different flowers in your garden or on your balcony. 6. Monitor before you spray We often use pesticides to control nuisance insects such as cockroaches, mosquitoes or ants in our homes and gardens. Sometimes, we use insecticides as a prevention strategy before we even see these pests at home. Keasar advises not to do this. “Insecticides carry health hazards for humans and pets; they are expensive; and they harm beneficial insects. ‘Good bugs’ may suffer from insecticides through lower survival, reduced fertility, or impairment of flight, learning and navigation,” she explains. “To reduce these hazards, look out for the household pests, and spray to control them only after they’ve actually infested your home.” 7. Use selective insecticides When you do spray, choose a bug killer targeted to the specific insect you’re trying to get rid of, rather than a broad-range product. “Using such selective insecticides against household pests carries lower risk for bees, parasitoids and other beneficial insects. Look for, and avoid, insecticides labeled as highly toxic to bees, wildlife and aquatic invertebrates.” 8. If you like butterflies… In the United States, the iconic black-and-orange monarch butterfly is declining in numbers to the point where it may be declared an endangered species. But Keasar explains that butterflies generally aren’t considered beneficial because their larvae are serious agricultural crop pests. And the adults are only marginally important as pollinators. However, if you are interested in conserving butterflies for their beauty, the steps you take can have the side effect of preserving other insects that may be more beneficial or more threatened, but less pretty and charismatic. The US Fish & Wildlife Service suggests planning a “pollinator garden” with plants that bloom in different seasons and can be placed in fully or partially sunny areas. Native milkweed is a particular favorite of monarch butterflies. To read the original article click here.

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Mosquitoes Are Seeing Red: Why New Findings About Their Vision Could Help You Hide from These Disease Vectors

AHA Publisher — Mon, 07 Feb 2022 08:00:33 +0000

University of Washington via Newswise – Beating the bite of mosquitoes this spring and summer could hinge on your attire and your skin. New research led by scientists at the University of Washington indicates that a common mosquito species — after detecting a telltale gas that we exhale — flies toward specific colors, including red, orange, black and cyan. The mosquitoes ignore other colors, such as green, purple, blue and white. The researchers believe these findings help explain how mosquitoes find hosts, since human skin, regardless of overall pigmentation, emits a strong red-orange “signal” to their eyes. “Mosquitoes appear to use odors to help them distinguish what is nearby, like a host to bite,” said senior author Jeffrey Riffell, a UW professor of biology. “When they smell specific compounds, like CO2 from our breath, that scent stimulates the eyes to scan for specific colors and other visual patterns, which are associated with a potential host, and head to them.” The results, published Feb. 4 in Nature Communications, reveal how the mosquito sense of smell — known as olfaction — influences how the mosquito responds to visual cues. Knowing which colors attract hungry mosquitoes, and which ones do not, can help design better repellants, traps and other methods to keep mosquitoes at bay. “One of the most common questions I’m asked is ‘What can I do to stop mosquitoes from biting me?’” said Riffell. “I used to say there are three major cues that attract mosquitoes: your breath, your sweat and the temperature of your skin. In this study, we found a fourth cue: the color red, which can not only be found on your clothes, but is also found in everyone’s skin. The shade of your skin doesn’t matter, we are all giving off a strong red signature. Filtering out those attractive colors in our skin, or wearing clothes that avoid those colors, could be another way to prevent a mosquito biting.” In their experiments, the team tracked behavior of female yellow fever mosquitoes, Aedes aegypti, when presented with different types of visual and scent cues. Like all mosquito species, only females drink blood, and bites from A. aegypti can transmit dengue, yellow fever, chikungunya and Zika. The researchers tracked individual mosquitoes in miniature test chambers, into which they sprayed specific odors and presented different types of visual patterns — such as a colored dot or a tasty human hand. Without any odor stimulus, mosquitoes largely ignored a dot at the bottom of the chamber, regardless of color. After a spritz of CO2 into the chamber, mosquitos continued to ignore the dot if it was green, blue or purple in color. But if the dot was red, orange, black or cyan, mosquitoes would fly toward it. Humans can’t smell CO2, which is the gas we and other animals exhale with each breath. Mosquitoes can. Past research by Riffell’s team and other groups showed that smelling CO2 boosts female mosquitoes’ activity level — searching the space around them, presumably for a host. The colored-dot experiments revealed that after smelling CO2, these mosquitoes’ eyes prefer certain wavelengths in the visual spectrum. It’s similar to what might happen when humans smell something good. “Imagine you’re on a sidewalk and you smell pie crust and cinnamon,” said Riffell. “That’s probably a sign that there’s a bakery nearby, and you might start looking around for it. Here, we started to learn what visual elements that mosquitoes are looking for after smelling their own version of a bakery.” Most humans have “true color” vision: We see different wavelengths of light as distinct colors: 650 nanometers shows up as red, while 450 nanometer wavelengths look blue, for example. The researchers do not know whether mosquitoes perceive colors the same way that our eyes do. But most of the colors the mosquitoes prefer after smelling CO2 — orange, red and black — correspond to longer wavelengths of light. Human skin, regardless of pigmentation, also gives off a long-wavelength signal in the red-orange range. When Riffell’s team repeated the chamber experiments with human skintone pigmentation cards — or a researcher’s bare hand — mosquitoes again flew toward the visual stimulus only after CO2 was sprayed into the chamber. If the researchers used filters to remove long-wavelength signals, or had the researcher wear a green-colored glove, then CO2-primed mosquitoes no longer flew toward the stimulus. Genes determine the preference of these females for red-orange colors. Mosquitoes with a mutant copy of a gene needed to smell CO2 no longer showed a color preference in the test chamber. Another strain of mutant mosquitoes, with a change related to vision so they could no longer “see” long wavelengths of light, were more color-blind in the presence of CO2. “These experiments lay out the first steps mosquitoes use to find hosts,” said Riffell. More research is needed to determine how other visual and odor cues — such as skin secretions — help mosquitoes target potential hosts at close range. Other mosquito species may also have different color preferences, based on their preferred host species. But these new findings add a new layer to mosquito control: color. To read the original article click here.

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Volcanic Glass Spray Shows Promise in Controlling Mosquitoes

AHA Publisher — Fri, 12 Jun 2020 07:00:38 +0000

North Carolina State University via EurekAlert – An indoor residual spray made by combining a type of volcanic glass with water showed effective control of mosquitoes that carry malaria, according to a new study. The findings could be useful in reducing disease-carrying mosquito populations – and the risk of malaria – in Africa. Malaria, an infectious disease transmitted by mosquitoes, annually kills some 400,000 people in Africa. The use of insecticide-treated bed nets and indoor residual sprays are the most common and effective methods of reducing mosquito populations in Africa. But mosquitoes are becoming increasingly resistant to the commonly used insecticides such as pyrethroids, so the need for alternative safe chemistry to use in controlling mosquitoes is important. The volcanic glass material used in this new intervention is perlite, an industrial mineral most frequently used in building materials and in gardens as a soil additive. The tested insecticide created from perlite, called Imergard WP, can be applied to interior walls and ceilings – and perhaps even inside roofs – as an indoor residual spray. The spray contains no additional chemicals, is not toxic to mammals and will be cost effective. Early results show that mosquitoes do not appear to have resistance to the perlite spray. In the study, North Carolina State University entomologists worked with the Innovative Vector Control Consortium (IVCC) based at the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine and Imerys Filtration Minerals Inc. to test Imergard WP. Researchers used the spray in experimental huts in the Republic of Benin (West Africa) to test the effects of the spray on both wild and more susceptible strains of Anopheles gambiae mosquitoes, the primary malaria vector in sub-Saharan Africa. Researchers used four different tests to verify the efficacy of Imergard WP. Control study huts had no mosquito-prevention spray. In the second group hut walls were coated with a common pyrethroid. Hut walls were sprayed with Imergard WP in the third group, while in the fourth group hut walls were sprayed with a mixture of Imergard WP and the common pyrethroid. Huts with walls treated with Imergard WP, with and without the pyrethroid, showed the largest mosquito mortality rates. Results showed mortality rates of mosquitos alighting on Imergard WP-treated walls were greater than 80% up to five months after treatments, and 78% at six months. The treatments were effective against both susceptible and wild-type mosquitoes. “The statically transferred perlite particles essentially dehydrate the mosquito,” said Mike Roe, William Neal Reynolds Distinguished Professor of Entomology at NC State and the corresponding author of the paper. “Many die within a few hours of contact with the treated surface. Mosquitoes are not repelled from a treated surface because there is no olfactory mechanism to smell rock.” Huts sprayed with only the common pesticide had mosquito mortality rates of around 40 to 45% over five months, with those rates dropping to 25% in month six of the study. “The processing of perlite as an insecticide is novel,” said David Stewart, commercial development manager for Imerys, the company that created Imergard WP, and co-author of the paper. “This material is not a silver bullet but a new tool that can be considered as part of an insect vector management program.” To read the original article click here.

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