June 25, 2015 • 42 mins
Sun Tzu said know your enemy, and so it is in this spirit that we present this episode on one of the worst airborne pests in the world.
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to you Stuff you should know from House Stuff
Works dot com. Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm
Josh Clark with Charles W. Chuck Bryant and Jerry's over
there be a Little Prankster. Yeah. Pre show Shenanigans. Yeah. Um,
(00:21):
well this is stuff you should know dot com. No podcast,
there is a stuff you should know dot com. Yeah.
That was my not so subtle way of working in
a plug car our website. I thought it was great.
How about plugging Twitter and yeah, you should do that
as well. Okay to Twitter and Facebook. Yeah, look up
that s y s K podcast. That's right. You know
(00:41):
a lot of people if you go to iTunes to
uh listen to our show, you might think, man, these
three hundred episodes are awesome. I love these guys. Here's
a fact for you. We have close to seven fifty
or more? Is it more now? I think we'll be
right at it, right at seven fifty right now? That's right.
So you were getting really short changed. So all you
(01:02):
need to do is go to stuffy sho dot com.
We have our entire podcast archives. Yeah. I think it's
stuffy dot com slash podcast slash archives something like that. Yeah,
you should go listen to the early episodes when we
just rambled on about nothing for five minutes at the
beginning of every show before we got tight and professional bam,
tight as a drum. Mosquitoes go, I hate them. Who doesn't,
(01:26):
I mean, everybody hates mosquitoes. And I was thinking, well, like,
it's kind of I understand, Like mosquitoes need some blood
to go procreate, So what's the big deal if they
take a little of your blood and go lay some eggs,
And it's fine, It's part of the circle of life.
And then I remembered how many mosquitoes need your blood,
and that how much disease mosquitoes carry their disease vector. Yeah,
(01:49):
and a pretty good one too. I'm one of those
people that, um, they flocked to. Oh yeah, you know.
My mom used to say it's because I was sweet,
But what she really meant was, it's because you're a
sweaty monster. It's because you probably admit a lot of
no nonnal the hide. I admit a lot of everything. Well,
(02:10):
you definitely do no nonal the hide. What I don't
Why can I say that non nonal Your eyes just
roll back. I mean it's spelled you can pronounce it however,
you like n O, n A n A L. But
it's a an oil that mosquitoes are bonkers for it.
(02:33):
I must have it in spades, chuck is half that
none at all bam, and then it's technically non an
all the hide. I was just inhabited by a spirit
that can really say some words. He's gone, all right. Mosquito, buddy,
(02:54):
is Spanish for a little fly or a little gnat
or a little nat. Yeah. I think in Europe they
called them nat or maybe still calling that, right, I think,
so are they not on the mosquito train? I don't know.
I haven't asked somebody from Europe. Let us know, let
us know what you call mosquitoes. That's right. And the
use of the word mosquito dates back to about fifteen
(03:15):
eighty three in North America, which is weird that they
can they can trace the etymology back to that. But
I saw no sourcing, no like, oh, well it was
Vasco de Gama or something like that who said mosquito.
It's a little that let's call him that. No idea
where it came from. But I've seen it as honed
as fifteen eighty three. Yeah, that sounds made up maybe
(03:39):
online etymology dictionary is usually pretty some point. And they
said fifteen eighties but had no attribution. Really interesting, Well,
they've been around for thirty million years no more. Yes,
well I figured at least thirty million. The oldest fossilized
blood that's ever been found was found and I think
wyoming in a mosquito, know that was forty six million
(04:01):
years old? Was that one in amber? And did they
extract it's DNA to make dinosaurs? It was in grant
it but it was still colored so you could see
the blood it was. It's crazy. It's intact like it
went and eight and I was like, oh, something killed me.
Now I'm fossilized to the blood of tuk Tuk. By
the way, you go listen to a fossils episode. That
(04:22):
is fascinating stuff. It is a good one, agreed, sir. So. Mosquitoes, um,
they like to drink your blood, which we'll get into later,
but they do this that makes them, by the way,
hematophogic and jerks one of those too. Yeah, It's there's
nothing creepier than being on your deck and seeing a
brand new mosquito land on you and you smash it
(04:44):
and there's a lot of blood already there, and you
know it's not yours. You know it's not yours because
to you it's brand new. You're covered in your neighbor's blood.
Guy down the street, who knows, and who knows what's
in that blood, which is why mosquitoes are disease vectors.
That's right. So they're going to find you and attack
you by using UM. And I like how this article
(05:05):
puts it. It sounds more like a military aircraft than
an insect because all these sensors, they have chemical sensors.
They can sniff out that carbon dioxide and lactic acid
up to a hundred feet away. Yes, and if you're breathing,
you're giving that junk out. Well, yeah, U xhale c
O two and mosquitoes hone in on that. They actually
(05:26):
have a neuron receptor that's designed to accept c O
two and say, oh, well, there's a bunch of CEO
two over here, I'm gonna go attack whatever it's coming
out of. There's a blood meal waiting to happen, exactly.
And so they trek CEO two. They trek not analde hyde.
I got it um and other stuff too. It comes
(05:49):
out of you, lactic acid in your sweat. They track
that too, so very much the way that we smell things,
or taste things, or see things or hear things. Mosquitoes
sense CEO two and other volatile compounds that humans and
other warm blooded animals emit. Yeah, they actually have visual
sensors as well. So, um, if you're in the green
(06:12):
woods and you're wearing a white T shirt, if it
contrasts heavily with the background, you're gonna stand out. You
want to wear camouflage clothing at all times, all all
the time, even when you're not in the woods, just
to show off to others. And that movement if you
if you're moving around, if you're doing a dance out
in the woods with your white uh frock, you're gonna
get attacked because you can be sweaty too. If you're
(06:34):
at if you're a member of the Polyphonic Spree at
a show in the woods, you're getting bit by a mosquito.
That's right. Uh And what else? Heat sensors, This one
is pretty unbelievable. They actually can detect heat infrared like
the predator. Yes, they are basically like the predator. So
(06:56):
you want to talk about body Parts. Yeah, Tommy, I
mean we kind of have to, you know. Oh, I'm
sorry it was Joey was an airplane, right, Yeah, it
was Joey. I saw that about half of that the
other night for the first time, and forever it's I
could watch it every week. It's so classic. And Emily
wasn't laughing. I was like, this is not your bag
(07:17):
as it and she said I laughed a lot when
I saw it when I was twelve. She didn't like
it anymore. I didn't hold up. She's not a big
fan of the Absurdist. That's the shame. It's a good
movie still. Yeah, Like I haven't seen their plane two
him forever, but I'm quite sure it's still pretty good. Joey,
you ever been to a Turkish prison? It's so wrong.
(07:37):
You couldn't even make that joke today, you know. It's like,
write a pedophile joke into your new comedy. And she
quickly that kid's like, why don't we just take that out?
It sound funny. You're coming out of ruper at Everett. Um, alright,
so body parts, Um, you have your head and that's
where all these lovely sensors are that we talked about
(07:57):
the chemical, visual and heat sensors, and the biting apparatus. Yeah,
which the probiscus, depending on whether it's a male or female.
You know, it's longstanding. What you would think is a
myth of some sort that it's just females that um
bite female mosquios. It's absolutely true. The men are just
(08:18):
like little hippies eating flower nectar. They don't bite. They
don't they're not even equipped to bite. Nope, they're incapable
of biting you. So if you're ever bitten or stung
whatever you want to call it by a mosquito, that's
a lady. It is a lady, although she's not acting
very ladylike. Blood meals aren't very lady like. No, she's
like the bride, that's right. Uh. You're also going to
(08:39):
find two compound eyes, um, some antennae, and then the
mouth parts which we just mentioned the probiscus mouth and
part for the lady. Just call it a mouth mouthparts
so gross, yeah, but I get it, it's science. Uh.
And then the palp us is another mouth part, another
(09:02):
disturbing word, thorax. That's the body segment where the wings
and legs are attached. Yes, all this makes it an
insect has two wings and six legs. Yeah, attached to
a thorax. That's an insect, buddy, that's right. They actually
have a heart, little compound heart in that thorax. And
then they have their abdomen, which is where they store
(09:25):
the digestive organs and that's where the poops from. Yeah,
and that's where the blood is to I imagine, right, Yeah,
where their blood meals stored blood meals really gross it is.
That was from what the flea episode, ticks and fleas
and yeah, anything that needs a blood meal, no, thank you. Uh.
(09:48):
Species of mosquitoes all over the world in about thirteen
genera right here in the US. And Chuck, there's actually three,
the Big three is what they call them. Well, that's
what I call them, the bigg Jordan's Magic Johnson, Larry Bird.
You wouldn't include Lebron in that list, not yet, I
think already. He just surpassed like Jordan and two other
(10:09):
guys I think last night. Instead, he needs to win
some more championships before he's on that list. Jordan half,
he went like seven or six. Yeah, I hear that.
I see your point. Lebron's got time though, So that
yeah he does. Jordan doesn't. No, Jordan's time is up,
he's finished. Um, sorry, Michael Jordan. We still think very
(10:29):
highly of you. He's gonna have someone he's gonna put
out a hit on both of us. Um, you know,
we we saw his plane once at a p DK airport.
Had to have been his plane his because it said
air Jordan's. It had the air Jordan's logo. But in
North Carolina blue, We're like, pretty sure that's Michael Jordan's airplane.
And it was nice. That's awesome. I wouldn't saw him
(10:50):
play baseball. When he played minor league baseball. Oh yeah,
it was pretty neat. He wasn't very good. No, he
went over four, but um, it was just neat. You know.
Sure to see Jordan's absolutely went over to Birmingham, Alabama.
Oh yeah, that's we played for them. Were the feeder
team for the White Sox. Uh yeah, I think so.
It shows how hard baseball is. You know, he's like
(11:12):
one of the greatest athletes of all time and he
cont a curveball. Yeah. Um, all right, I was talking
about the Big Three and you facetiously pretended I was
talking about basketball players, But now I was talking about
the big three species of mosquitoes that afflict the US.
All right, so break it down for me. What are
they aidis floodwater mosquitoes, right, yeah, and um, those include
(11:38):
the yellow fever mosquito, which basically does what it says
on the tin, spreads yellow fever. That's right, as advertised. Um.
And the Asian tiger mosquito, which I think is probably
my favorite mosquito. It's just because of how it looks.
Uh really they just look compact and striped and just
like little sleek meant for business. Yes. Um. The second
(11:59):
one is all the n O n O felis and
they breed in permanent fresh water. And uh, the malaria
mosquito is a member of that one, so that's not
that's when you want to avoid as well. Yeah, no good.
And then lastly there's q lex or selex. I think
it's q lex. Yeah, that's what I would say, c
U L e X. And they breed in um quiet
(12:22):
standing water, water that's entered introspective repose, you know, like
the stuff that builds up in like an old tire
or something like that. Yeah, they sound like the dumbad.
What the standing water like in an old tire in
your yard, because that's going to breed the heck out
of some mosquitoes, especially sue lex or culex. They sound
(12:43):
like kind of the dummies of the mosquito world. They
only live for a few weeks in the summer. And um,
I think these are the ones that attack me most
in Georgia. I'm not mistaken. They're weak flyers, is what
it says. So yeah, and you can imagine those ones
that kind of like come at you like I can't
land very well, I just need to bump into you
(13:03):
with my probiscus um. But they actually the culex prefer
birds over humans, kind of like that weasel jumping on
the back of the woodpecker. That's right, I just saw.
God I feel terrible when I think about a bird
being bitten by mosquitoes and not having an arm, just
a hand to smack it. Yeah, you know, I do
(13:25):
the same thing when they're around my animals too, smack them. Oh,
I just I don't like it. Oh No one eats
the blood meal off of my dog except me. All right,
how about we go splash our faces down with some
aqua velva and continue talking about the life cycle After
this all right. We mentioned that mosquitoes were insects, and
(14:06):
that means that they hatched from eggs. That's right. Like
all insects, they could also be precocial birds, but in
this case they're not. They're insects. The females are gonna
lay their eggs in that water, Um, than the larva
and pupa stages are going to live in that water.
Pup potentially change into adults. Um, they leave the water
(14:30):
and they become the annoying pests that you hate so much. Yeah,
and I didn't realize this, but mosquitoes they can live
from a few days to several weeks, depending on the species,
depending on the environmental conditions. And I would have thought
that the they live a shorter period in colder weather,
but actually the opposite is true. They hunker down. Yeah,
(14:51):
they a female can stay alive in a cool, damp
spot over the wintering months until spring comes around. You
can get a blood meal and and lay some eggs,
which is why she she needs your blood. You have
proteins in your blood that she needs and she needs
it to lay some eggs. So let's say she's got
a blood meal, right, she's stuck you and she goes
(15:12):
and she lays some eggs, and she's going to lay
them in water. And again, depending on the species, different
types of water are gonna attract them. Like eighties, which
is a very tough word to say, it's almost all
vowels um. They're going to lay their eggs in a
place that will eventually water will come in contact with
it and carry them away other than directly into water.
(15:33):
If you've ever seen the standing water, like in that
old tire in your backyard, and you see a little
grouping of little white uh, looks like a lot of
little eggs floating together, those are mosquito. Those are eggs
floating together. That's exactly what they are. Exactly. They're sort
of laid there in a group. And I think you
said this, but it's one blood meal per hatch her
(15:56):
egg laying. Yeah, anytime they want to lay eggs, they
have to drink that blood meal. And is that the
only reason they drink the blood meal? That's all That's
what I saw. Yeah, So when you have a mosquito
biting you, that means that they have eggs that they're
ready to hatch. Yeah, so when you're killing that mosquito,
you're actually even better killing all of its future. Ye, well,
(16:18):
that makes me feel even better. So um, and then
you can also apparently you can tell what kind of
mosquito species is. Um, you're looking at based on what
hatches out of the eggs the larva, because the eggs
hatch and live, they spend the larval stage in the
pupil stage in water. I think like you said, that's right.
(16:40):
The larva are also called wigglers and um, if you've
ever seen that same group of eggs look like teeny tiny,
tiny little worms, that's the larva. Yeah, and so um
and awfully's larva will be parallel to the surface of
the water, like almost like floating right below it or
on the water surface. And then eight s and q
(17:01):
lex extend down into the water and they breathe through
air tubes like um bugs bunny using a read like
a bamboo read. Um, they're going to the larbarre gonna malt,
which is shedding their skin a few times. And I
believe that's on that fourth malt is when they become real,
(17:21):
is that right? No, they become pupa Okay, they become
the pupi pupie or tumblers is what they're called and
basically they stop eating and they get ready to spin
a sort of cocoon of sorts around themselves. Although they're
not spinning, they're enclosing themselves. And then they go in
and they turn into adults. They grow their wings, their
(17:42):
legs grow out, their probiscus grows out. If they're the
hippie male version, their hair grows out down to their shoulders.
They actually bust out of that case with air pressure. Yeah,
and I looked this up. This article makes it's it
makes appearances all for the Internet in various forms, like
it has been ripped off plenty of times. And I
(18:05):
can't find anybody who's like and this is how. This
is how they use their pressure to break open the cocoon.
I have no idea. The only thing I can think
of is that they flap their wings enough that it
increases the air pressure inside of the enclosure and it
breaks open. Oh see, I was gonna say they blow
(18:25):
it out their probiscus or something. But what if it's
a male like they don't have a probiscus. They can
blow it out mouth parts, they can blow it through
their mouthparts. No, I don't know. Yeah, I mean that's
that's is a legitimate and suggestion is mine or maybe
science got to that point and they're like who cares, Yeah,
just kill you know. Uh. When mosquitoes finally do spread
(18:50):
their wings and fly um like beautiful doves, they want
to go out and like most animals, find a mate
and mate so to make more of themselves. That's right,
it's like their job basically. And so the males they're
just sitting there feeding on plant nectar and they're like me, me, okay, me, yeah,
(19:11):
you great, And the females like, yes, um, let's do this.
And then I'm gonna go get a blood meal and
you go off and die and then I'll die later on. Yeah.
Pretty much not a lot of purpose to the mosquito's life. Well,
we'll talk about that a little bit later. Um about
whether or not we even need mosquitoes. Oh good, I
(19:32):
would love to talk about that, Okay, but not right now. UM,
let's talk about the bites. When they bite you with
that probiscus um, they actually have an anti coagulant, a
protein in the saliva that they're gonna spit out on you,
and it's gonna keep keep that blood free. Flowing while
they're sucking it up exactly. Um, a female mosquito will
(19:57):
eat until she's full. And apparently if you cut the
sensory nerve to her abdomen and cut off her indicator
that she is full, she just eating until she exploded.
Like that's what the sadist with too much time on
his hands does in very tiny tools. Yeah, he captures
some cs severs that thing so they can gorge themselves.
(20:19):
Like here here's an arm go to town. Could you
imagine seeing that? O? My god, I kind of have
seen it. There was a Tabasco commercial from years ago
where like this kind of Cajun dude is eating pizza
with Tabasco on it, remember, and then like a mosquito
comes and like sucks his blood and flies off and
it's flying away and explodes in flames. So you have
(20:41):
seen it kind of on TV. That's very nice. Um,
After you get bitten, the saliba is what causes that
immune response that you know as the bumpy itch, but
science calls it a wheel w H E A L. Yeah,
that's the puffy area around the little center prick part. Yeah,
(21:02):
and that's your body's immune response being mounted against that
anticoagulant saliva that remains after the mosquitos flown off UM,
and the wheel will eventually get better and go away,
but the itch will remain. And the itch is an
indicator that your white blood cells are still fighting off
(21:23):
or breaking down that protein in the anticoagulant saliva. UM.
Have you ever heard the old wives tale that if
you put an X or cross with your fingernail, it
won't itch. M No, you never heard that. That was
a big, like childhood thing, like if you cross make
an X on the mosquito bite with your fingernail really deeply,
(21:44):
it won't itch anymore. And it always seemed to work.
And I looked that up and it's actually a thing.
Researchers at the American Allergy Institute UM released findings about
four years ago that UH said that's actually an effective technique,
and they set it outproof form. They did studies on
several hundred people and outperformed any anti itch remedies like
(22:04):
over the counter stuff that you could put on it,
and they they reckon that it works because UM it
limits the immune response from the binding of antibodies to
antigens in the saliva. Basically, it just digs deep and
disrupts that. So there you have it. Apparently it's true
(22:26):
bold vives right again. That's right, Um, so chuck. In
addition to having an itch from a bite and having
the anticoagulant protein from the mosquito saliva stuck in your skin,
it gets way worse than that as far as mosquitoes go. Mosquitoes,
like I said, and I said it before and I'll
(22:47):
say it again, mosquitoes are a disease vector to the
nth degree and one of the things that they're very
famous for spreading. As a matter of fact, as we saw,
there's a mosquito species that included a type called the
malaria s. Mosquito is malaria, and malaria is a viral infection. No,
I'm sorry, it's a parasite that you catch from the
(23:09):
anopolies mosquito. And it takes anywhere from a few days
to a few months for symptoms to develop as the
infection grows in your bloodstream. And um, you're in big trouble. Yeah,
you're gonna be headachy and muscle achy and feverish and chili. Uh.
It can kill you. Um. But they do have anti
(23:31):
malarial drugs and I think that's one of those you
can get not a vaccine, but can't you take drugs
before you go on a trip like that? Malaria? Yeah?
And um, you can drink gin and tonics, which originally
developed by the British when they took over India. Um,
(23:51):
and we're exposed to malaria. Really. Yeah. Tonic water contains quinine,
which is found in the bark of the chichon a tree,
a k a. The fever tree. And um, it's been
like it cures and prevents malaria. So they would drink gin,
which they already had on them all the time, and
this tonic water. And then apparently tonic water was even
(24:13):
more bitter back in the day than it is today,
so they would add something like lime or cucumber or
something like that. But lime had the added benefit of
chasing off scurvy as well or preventing scurvy. So the
average safe sailor in the British navy in the mid
eighteenth cent or nineteenth century had a supply of gin,
(24:34):
tonic water, and limes. Put them all together, you got
a gin and tonic and you're preventing malaria or preventing
mesquite stead and ward off mosquitoes, does it. No, it
prevents malaria, like I guess, it prevents the parasite from
spreading in your body's something like the chinchona. The quinine
prevents the parasite from taking hold. Well, I guess I'm safe.
(24:57):
Then you're safe. But apparently a one million and people
die every year still from malaria. Unbelievable. It's that's inexcusable
in this day and age, with the ubiquity of malarial
drugs in the West. Agreed, it's like share the wealth. Yeah,
a million people a year from malaria, that's really sad.
It is. Um yellow fever is another big problem. We
(25:19):
don't have it here in the U. S Or Europe anymore,
but it is still all over the place in South
America and Africa. And it's sort of symptomatic like malaria,
worse except worse but um nausea, vomiting, jaundice, and it
can also kill you. Yes, they can't treat. They treat
the symptoms, but there is no like cure, right, yeah,
(25:40):
the only and there's no cure and the only prevention
really is to prevent mosquitoes from biting you, which is
a tall order. I imagine in parts of South America. Yeah. Yeah,
then there's encephalitis and the most famous of the encephalitis
that's spread viral and scephalitis that's spread by mosquitoes. West
Nile virus. Yeah, I thought this is interesting. It said
several types include Western Equine, Eastern Equine, West Nile, and St. Louis. Yeah,
(26:08):
just sort of stood out as odd to me. Uh,
you will get a high fever, stiff neck, headache, confusion, laziness, sleepiness. Um,
I might have West actually, And now that I think
about it, um, And we'll talk a little more about West.
Now when we talk about mosquito repellents, there's a couple
more that mosquitoes are well known for spreading dan gay
(26:30):
fever spread by my favorite the Asian tiger mosquito that
produces everything from viral flu to hemorrhagic fever. Apparently it
was it just mainly stuck around East Asia and then
in it made its first appearance in the United States,
introducing ding gay fever in the US. And the worms too.
(26:52):
They spread worms, specifically types of worms that like to
root into your eye and make you blind. Wow. Yeah,
they're they're diseased actors. HIV is not spread by mosquitoes.
Everybody knows this by now, but um, don't you remember
being a kid though and being like, oh god, yeah,
I remember growing up in that generation thinking wait a minute.
(27:15):
And I didn't even see it on the news or
as a concern, Like I remember having my own original
thought of hold on a minute, if you can get
HIV through blood and mosquitoes, or that's not my blood,
and it's like a little needle, I know. I was.
Actually it was like someone's gonna get this and things
are gonna change. But luckily, thankfully, they found out that uh,
(27:36):
the virus cannot survive in a mosquito. No, apparently it's
really it has a lot of trouble surviving outside of
its human host. It just doesn't live very long. Yeah,
we really need to do an HIV I know, it's
been long. Promise we will. We will do that very soon. So, Chuck,
we talked about all this stuff. Mosquitoes can spread and UM,
(27:57):
a lot of these things like UM yellow fever, uh
in West Nile virus. They're they're difficult to treat and
the best thing you can do is to prevent mosquitoes
from biting you. And actually I mentioned what was it
Dengey fever that made its appearance in the United States
(28:18):
in I don't know if you remember this or whatever,
there was a panic all of a sudden in New
York State. I think something like five or six people.
Um seven people died in just over a month from
September to October of and they died of an in
viral encephalitis, right, And the health officials were like, what
(28:41):
is going on? And they couldn't find anything in common
with these people. They there was no normal um epidemiological marks, right,
They just couldn't figure out where it's coming from. And
then they finally identified it as West Nile virus that
was being carried by mosquitoes, and everybody freaked out. Part
(29:02):
of the problem with this was that at the time,
a lot of people were suddenly questioning what we were
using as mosquito repellent, which is also called deep That
was the primary mosquito repellent that was in use and
still is today. And at the time people were just
starting to question because there are a lot of studies
about whether deet was safe, specifically for pregnant ladies and
(29:24):
um kids. Yeah, do you want to read the word
that is deep? Sure? All right, go ahead, and and
di ethel m tulum medea to lua Mede's almost had it, man,
try it again, and and di ethel m to luamde. Yeah,
I think that's exactly right, my friend. Which is Deep somehow,
(29:47):
that's what it's abbreviated, asked, Yeah, d E E T.
And it was created by the U. S. D a H.
The Department of Agriculture in ninety six, of course for
the Army's a military thing, like so many things created
and and um. Eventually it made its way over to
consumers in the nineteen fifties. And like you said, over
the years it's been sort of uh maligned and embraced,
(30:10):
um like a roller coaster, you know. But in the
in the height of this West Nile panic, it was
also like the it was the height of or the
bottom of faith. Indeed, as a safe thing, a safe product.
That was Deep's lowest day. Yes, it's the dark day.
(30:32):
So um. One of the reasons that people were suspicious
of Deep is that it's a plasticizer, which means it
can melt plastic. Yea, that's one thing. So that's enough
for me, So spray that on your skin, um, and
then there was a study of UH in two thousand
two of about nine pregnant women in Thailand, and it
(30:55):
investigated their bloodstream for DEEP. And the thing is with Deep,
when you put it on your skin, most of the
time you're it's absorbed at a rate that your liver
can break it down, and when you finally pee it out,
it's been completely metabolized and it's safe if I guess right,
that's what they say. Well, this study in Thailand showed,
(31:15):
it showed something different, and it scared everybody. Yeah, it
showed that, Um, they actually found the chemical in the
umbilical cord of eight percent of the women, so that
across the placental barrier, and that freaked people out so understandably, right,
that spread like wildfire. Everybody was freaked out about Deep.
(31:35):
And then simultaneously there there were long standing reports of
children having seizures from using Deep. Is that true? I
can't quite tell. What I get is if you use
Deep in normal concentrations on your skin, which they say
it used to be, But then they found that anything
(31:57):
over fifty is really about the same, right, Yeah, it's
diminished return. So you want to just use fifty or
no more than fifty and when they figured that out,
they just dropped it down to thirty. They rounded down
for some reason. Um, but apparently, if you use it
in a normal concentration on your skin, um you're okay. Allegedly,
and a bunch of different groups have come out and said, deets, okay,
(32:18):
as long as you follow the label and you're using
a normal concentration. If you get in your mouth, for example,
though then all of a sudden, the concentrations are hundreds
of times higher than if it's on your skin. So
these kids licking their arms and stuff. Supposedly that was
the common link to the seizures and kids, but apparently
it was never demonstrated to everyone's satisfaction. And some people
(32:40):
are like, well, seizures are way more common in children
than in an adults, so maybe it's just a coincidence
that these kids also had bugs bray on at the
time they have their seizure. I don't I try not
to use the no And you are one of enough
people that there's a pretty decent market for alternatives, a
deep for mosquito repellents that have been developed over the years.
(33:03):
That's what I usually do. What do you use? Oh?
I mean back in the day, use the the old
skin so soft, which, yeah, I don't know, maybe it
worked a little bit. Well, you know what's funny is
like this whole deep scare people started asking questions about
and they're like, well, how does it work? And apparently
scientists were they had to say, like, we're not. I'm
(33:24):
sure we think that it confuses the the um it
masks the c O two that's omitted by humans. Interesting,
So that's what they think. They've also found that since
DEED is really effective at doing that, they found other
compounds too that do similar things that that fit a
(33:44):
CEO two receptor or a non all in all receptor.
And um, so the mosquitoes confused and doesn't know where
to bite or sting or whatever. Um. I think uh,
Emily made a little homemade concoction once. I think out
of that lemon eucalyptus oil that you mentioned in your
(34:04):
own article. Yes, that's that's one lemon eucalyptus oil. Um,
there's soybean oil. Yeah, that's supposed to work pretty good, right. Supposedly,
a two percent concentration of soybean oil prevents mosquitoes from
biting between one and a half and seven hours. That's
pretty great. And this is soybean oil. This is the
same stuff you can like eat in your food, so
(34:25):
it's very safe. What about citranilla oil, because Jerry came
in here bragging about all her citranilla oil plants that
she has surrounded her lavish gardens. Jerry was wrong. So
the citranilla oil apparently does kind of work, but it
works way better if you extract the active ingredients gerenniol.
(34:46):
So if you've got the the citranilla torches, uh, then
that's doing a better job than just having the plant
around her. I would guess if anything, that's probably attracting
them through the heat. Oh, attracting them, I would guess.
But see, I think the smoke helps get rid of them.
So there's two things you can do with mosquitoes, right.
You can protect yourself by masking yourself like the from
(35:07):
this the volatile compounds that you're emitting, right, and then
you can also distract and bait them. And they they
somebody did a study in two thousand thirteen at u
C Riverside. They analyzed half a million compounds that had
a structure that fit mosquito ceo two receptors, and they
found a hundred and thirty eight that we're safe fish,
(35:29):
and they zoned in on two of them. One is
ethel Pyra eight, which has a fruity smell that humans
find pleasant and testing it's safe for use in foods
and um. It apparently masks the skin as well as
deep does. And then there's also cyclopentanone, which has a
minty smell that attracts mosquitoes that you could use for
(35:52):
like a trap. Did you put like in the back
of your yard right? I will say this the you know,
they make a lot of things like mosquito traps, um
bug zappers, which do not work. Uh. If you have
a bug zapper, all you're doing is killing a lot
of like really cool insects, you know, like moths and things. Um.
(36:14):
Those things that you hook up to like a tank
and roll out into your yard. I don't think those
are supposed to work very well. It's like propane. I
don't know what it is. I've seen it before, though, Okay,
I don't think it's propane. UM. I'll have to look
into that, but I've heard they don't work. Do you
remember that, UM, Like years back, it was kind of
(36:35):
a trend among UM radio stations. They said that they
were playing a low frequency sound that mosquitoes that humans
couldn't hear, but repelled mosquito that why, just to listen
to their stations. I don't know if it was actually
transmitted or if it was just a hoax. It sounds
like a hoax to me. So you said you had
(36:55):
something about mosquitoes and whether we actually need them or not, right, Yeah,
but real quickly. They also make um mosquito proof clothing
where this this they're iron suits, you know, but chemicals
are actually in in the fabric itself to ward off mosquitoes.
I remember I wrote something about that at one point,
and I just remember thinking, I'm never gonna buy something
(37:17):
like this and wash them with my regular clothes. Maybe
I'm an alarmist. Supposedly there's um there's a chemical that
is just to be used on your clothing, not your skin.
Why is because it's a deadly, deadly poisoned neurotoxin to humans. Yeah,
(37:37):
that is we should actually say the name of that permethrin. Yeah,
that is for clothing only. And um, if I see
something like that, I'm just not gonna use it, Like,
don't get any on your skin, but you can put
it on your T shirt just fine, and don't look
at happy fun ball. Uh. So we have another article
(37:57):
on our website called what if mosquitoes went It's ext
inked because apparently there are some scientists that have been investigating,
like how to increase the male population enough that there
just aren't females anymore. Uh, and you know, no more offspring.
And there's a few things. There are some birds in
the Arctic tundra that you know, migrate and feed on mosquito,
(38:21):
so it could disrupt that. And then of course the
whole chain reaction thing that we've talked about before in
the food chain. You know what could that mean? Um?
There there's actual mosquito fish and an other fish feed
on mosquitoes and their larvae. Um. But the general consensus
from sciences, you know, if mosquitoes went away, they'd probably
just adapt and find other meals and it wouldn't set
(38:43):
off some awful reaction like bees would. You know, Well,
we could use this as proof positive once and for
all that humans are capable or never ever should intervene
in ecology and ecological stuff. Let's let's do it. Let's
see if we can remove mosquitoes from the planet. You know,
(39:05):
there's not I was waiting for some big thing like
mosquitoes are really so important, but not really. Nope, like
the animals, they'll just those fish. The mosquito fish, I guess,
will be the the whatever, the gnatfish or the fly fish.
It's the like fly larva more. Anyway, I don't care. Yeah,
(39:25):
I'd say that's worthy of an experiment. Let's get rid
of it. I have feel not bad at all about
saying that. Uh well, if you want to know more
about mosquitoes, you're born enemy. You can type that word
into the search part how stuff works dot Com. And
since I said search parts, it's time for listener mail.
(39:46):
I am going to call this one. What what is this?
Oh my, I'm gonna call this I I see dead people.
Um guys, I've been listening to your awesome show for
about a year, and I'm working my way through the
back catalog. Last week I listened to you How Stunt
Men and Stunt Women Works. Great episode, Chuck mentioned the
Vic Morrow helicopter accident from the Twilight Zone, and uh,
(40:08):
I said it was actually on YouTube, which is something
I never knew. Despite the warning from Chuck not to watch.
I did it. Next time, I'll listen. It is rough.
One thing I did learn, though, from the accident was
um the subsequent research on it was that John Landis
directed that segment, which I knew because he brought on charges. Um.
This brings me to the reason I'm writing. I met
John land Is, said a couple of years ago at
(40:31):
the Burbank Airport. He was really friendly and jovial and
took a picture with my friend. Uh. In my opinion,
in the opinion of many others, by the way landis
Is actions heavily contributed to the tragic deaths of Vic
Morrow and the two children. Despite living in l A
and working in the entertainment industry, I really don't meet
any many celebrities and consider life to be easier because
(40:51):
of it. However, other celebrities I have met included Aaron Hernandez,
who's the New England Patriot that's in for murdering now
and Ray Lewis, who was acquitted of murder back in
the day. Uh. And while I didn't officially meet him,
Charles S. Dutton was in my office once and we
exchanged the polite nod. So when you add them all up.
(41:13):
The celebrities I personally encountered range from definitely to possibility
possibly responsible for nine violent deaths. Wow, how about that?
Jeez um, Charles Dutton, did he got somebody? Yeah, he
spent like his youth in prison. Oh that's right, he
went to prison and got out and became famous. Okay,
(41:36):
I've learned a great deal from your podcast over the
year that I've been listening, and now I have learned
that for my own safety and for the betterment of
humanity in general, my celebrity interactions must be kept to
a minimum. I know. For legal reasons, this email will
never make it a listener mail reverse psychology, I got
that kind of always works. Actually, I don't see what
(41:57):
the legal reasons are. Nothing. This guy's like signed a
lawyer inflammatory in here and that is from name redacted.
M thank your name redacted. You have an unusual name. Yeah.
He also goes by anonymous. Oh or yeah, Detroit. That's right,
that's what we should use as a name redacted or anonymous,
Yeah Detroit. All right, So thank you, yeah Detroit for
(42:18):
that email. Way to go you had, Detroit. If you
want to get in touch with us and let us
know any weird stuff about yourself that's pretty cool. Um.
You can tweet to us at s y s K podcast.
You can join us on Facebook dot com, slash Stuff
you Should Know. You can send us an email to
Stuff Podcast at Housetuff works dot com and has always
joined us at at home on the web, Stuff you
Should Know dot com For more on this and thousands
(42:45):
of other topics, does it how stuff works dot com
Welcome to you Stuff you should know from House Stuff
Works dot com. Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm
Josh Clark with Charles W. Chuck Bryant and Jerry's over
there be a Little Prankster. Yeah. Pre show Shenanigans. Yeah. Um,
(00:21):
well this is stuff you should know dot com. No podcast,
there is a stuff you should know dot com. Yeah.
That was my not so subtle way of working in
a plug car our website. I thought it was great.
How about plugging Twitter and yeah, you should do that
as well. Okay to Twitter and Facebook. Yeah, look up
that s y s K podcast. That's right. You know
(00:41):
a lot of people if you go to iTunes to
uh listen to our show, you might think, man, these
three hundred episodes are awesome. I love these guys. Here's
a fact for you. We have close to seven fifty
or more? Is it more now? I think we'll be
right at it, right at seven fifty right now? That's right.
So you were getting really short changed. So all you
(01:02):
need to do is go to stuffy sho dot com.
We have our entire podcast archives. Yeah. I think it's
stuffy dot com slash podcast slash archives something like that. Yeah,
you should go listen to the early episodes when we
just rambled on about nothing for five minutes at the
beginning of every show before we got tight and professional bam,
tight as a drum. Mosquitoes go, I hate them. Who doesn't,
(01:26):
I mean, everybody hates mosquitoes. And I was thinking, well, like,
it's kind of I understand, Like mosquitoes need some blood
to go procreate, So what's the big deal if they
take a little of your blood and go lay some eggs,
And it's fine, It's part of the circle of life.
And then I remembered how many mosquitoes need your blood,
and that how much disease mosquitoes carry their disease vector. Yeah,
(01:49):
and a pretty good one too. I'm one of those
people that, um, they flocked to. Oh yeah, you know.
My mom used to say it's because I was sweet,
But what she really meant was, it's because you're a
sweaty monster. It's because you probably admit a lot of
no nonnal the hide. I admit a lot of everything. Well,
(02:10):
you definitely do no nonal the hide. What I don't
Why can I say that non nonal Your eyes just
roll back. I mean it's spelled you can pronounce it however,
you like n O, n A n A L. But
it's a an oil that mosquitoes are bonkers for it.
(02:33):
I must have it in spades, chuck is half that
none at all bam, and then it's technically non an
all the hide. I was just inhabited by a spirit
that can really say some words. He's gone, all right. Mosquito, buddy,
(02:54):
is Spanish for a little fly or a little gnat
or a little nat. Yeah. I think in Europe they
called them nat or maybe still calling that, right, I think,
so are they not on the mosquito train? I don't know.
I haven't asked somebody from Europe. Let us know, let
us know what you call mosquitoes. That's right. And the
use of the word mosquito dates back to about fifteen
(03:15):
eighty three in North America, which is weird that they
can they can trace the etymology back to that. But
I saw no sourcing, no like, oh, well it was
Vasco de Gama or something like that who said mosquito.
It's a little that let's call him that. No idea
where it came from. But I've seen it as honed
as fifteen eighty three. Yeah, that sounds made up maybe
(03:39):
online etymology dictionary is usually pretty some point. And they
said fifteen eighties but had no attribution. Really interesting, Well,
they've been around for thirty million years no more. Yes,
well I figured at least thirty million. The oldest fossilized
blood that's ever been found was found and I think
wyoming in a mosquito, know that was forty six million
(04:01):
years old? Was that one in amber? And did they
extract it's DNA to make dinosaurs? It was in grant
it but it was still colored so you could see
the blood it was. It's crazy. It's intact like it
went and eight and I was like, oh, something killed me.
Now I'm fossilized to the blood of tuk Tuk. By
the way, you go listen to a fossils episode. That
(04:22):
is fascinating stuff. It is a good one, agreed, sir. So. Mosquitoes, um,
they like to drink your blood, which we'll get into later,
but they do this that makes them, by the way,
hematophogic and jerks one of those too. Yeah, It's there's
nothing creepier than being on your deck and seeing a
brand new mosquito land on you and you smash it
(04:44):
and there's a lot of blood already there, and you
know it's not yours. You know it's not yours because
to you it's brand new. You're covered in your neighbor's blood.
Guy down the street, who knows, and who knows what's
in that blood, which is why mosquitoes are disease vectors.
That's right. So they're going to find you and attack
you by using UM. And I like how this article
(05:05):
puts it. It sounds more like a military aircraft than
an insect because all these sensors, they have chemical sensors.
They can sniff out that carbon dioxide and lactic acid
up to a hundred feet away. Yes, and if you're breathing,
you're giving that junk out. Well, yeah, U xhale c
O two and mosquitoes hone in on that. They actually
(05:26):
have a neuron receptor that's designed to accept c O
two and say, oh, well, there's a bunch of CEO
two over here, I'm gonna go attack whatever it's coming
out of. There's a blood meal waiting to happen, exactly.
And so they trek CEO two. They trek not analde hyde.
I got it um and other stuff too. It comes
(05:49):
out of you, lactic acid in your sweat. They track
that too, so very much the way that we smell things,
or taste things, or see things or hear things. Mosquitoes
sense CEO two and other volatile compounds that humans and
other warm blooded animals emit. Yeah, they actually have visual
sensors as well. So, um, if you're in the green
(06:12):
woods and you're wearing a white T shirt, if it
contrasts heavily with the background, you're gonna stand out. You
want to wear camouflage clothing at all times, all all
the time, even when you're not in the woods, just
to show off to others. And that movement if you
if you're moving around, if you're doing a dance out
in the woods with your white uh frock, you're gonna
get attacked because you can be sweaty too. If you're
(06:34):
at if you're a member of the Polyphonic Spree at
a show in the woods, you're getting bit by a mosquito.
That's right. Uh And what else? Heat sensors, This one
is pretty unbelievable. They actually can detect heat infrared like
the predator. Yes, they are basically like the predator. So
(06:56):
you want to talk about body Parts. Yeah, Tommy, I
mean we kind of have to, you know. Oh, I'm
sorry it was Joey was an airplane, right, Yeah, it
was Joey. I saw that about half of that the
other night for the first time, and forever it's I
could watch it every week. It's so classic. And Emily
wasn't laughing. I was like, this is not your bag
(07:17):
as it and she said I laughed a lot when
I saw it when I was twelve. She didn't like
it anymore. I didn't hold up. She's not a big
fan of the Absurdist. That's the shame. It's a good
movie still. Yeah, Like I haven't seen their plane two
him forever, but I'm quite sure it's still pretty good. Joey,
you ever been to a Turkish prison? It's so wrong.
(07:37):
You couldn't even make that joke today, you know. It's like,
write a pedophile joke into your new comedy. And she
quickly that kid's like, why don't we just take that out?
It sound funny. You're coming out of ruper at Everett. Um, alright,
so body parts, Um, you have your head and that's
where all these lovely sensors are that we talked about
(07:57):
the chemical, visual and heat sensors, and the biting apparatus. Yeah,
which the probiscus, depending on whether it's a male or female.
You know, it's longstanding. What you would think is a
myth of some sort that it's just females that um
bite female mosquios. It's absolutely true. The men are just
(08:18):
like little hippies eating flower nectar. They don't bite. They
don't they're not even equipped to bite. Nope, they're incapable
of biting you. So if you're ever bitten or stung
whatever you want to call it by a mosquito, that's
a lady. It is a lady, although she's not acting
very ladylike. Blood meals aren't very lady like. No, she's
like the bride, that's right. Uh. You're also going to
(08:39):
find two compound eyes, um, some antennae, and then the
mouth parts which we just mentioned the probiscus mouth and
part for the lady. Just call it a mouth mouthparts
so gross, yeah, but I get it, it's science. Uh.
And then the palp us is another mouth part, another
(09:02):
disturbing word, thorax. That's the body segment where the wings
and legs are attached. Yes, all this makes it an
insect has two wings and six legs. Yeah, attached to
a thorax. That's an insect, buddy, that's right. They actually
have a heart, little compound heart in that thorax. And
then they have their abdomen, which is where they store
(09:25):
the digestive organs and that's where the poops from. Yeah,
and that's where the blood is to I imagine, right, Yeah,
where their blood meals stored blood meals really gross it is.
That was from what the flea episode, ticks and fleas
and yeah, anything that needs a blood meal, no, thank you. Uh.
(09:48):
Species of mosquitoes all over the world in about thirteen
genera right here in the US. And Chuck, there's actually three,
the Big three is what they call them. Well, that's
what I call them, the bigg Jordan's Magic Johnson, Larry Bird.
You wouldn't include Lebron in that list, not yet, I
think already. He just surpassed like Jordan and two other
(10:09):
guys I think last night. Instead, he needs to win
some more championships before he's on that list. Jordan half,
he went like seven or six. Yeah, I hear that.
I see your point. Lebron's got time though, So that
yeah he does. Jordan doesn't. No, Jordan's time is up,
he's finished. Um, sorry, Michael Jordan. We still think very
(10:29):
highly of you. He's gonna have someone he's gonna put
out a hit on both of us. Um, you know,
we we saw his plane once at a p DK airport.
Had to have been his plane his because it said
air Jordan's. It had the air Jordan's logo. But in
North Carolina blue, We're like, pretty sure that's Michael Jordan's airplane.
And it was nice. That's awesome. I wouldn't saw him
(10:50):
play baseball. When he played minor league baseball. Oh yeah,
it was pretty neat. He wasn't very good. No, he
went over four, but um, it was just neat. You know.
Sure to see Jordan's absolutely went over to Birmingham, Alabama.
Oh yeah, that's we played for them. Were the feeder
team for the White Sox. Uh yeah, I think so.
It shows how hard baseball is. You know, he's like
(11:12):
one of the greatest athletes of all time and he
cont a curveball. Yeah. Um, all right, I was talking
about the Big Three and you facetiously pretended I was
talking about basketball players, But now I was talking about
the big three species of mosquitoes that afflict the US.
All right, so break it down for me. What are
they aidis floodwater mosquitoes, right, yeah, and um, those include
(11:38):
the yellow fever mosquito, which basically does what it says
on the tin, spreads yellow fever. That's right, as advertised. Um.
And the Asian tiger mosquito, which I think is probably
my favorite mosquito. It's just because of how it looks.
Uh really they just look compact and striped and just
like little sleek meant for business. Yes. Um. The second
(11:59):
one is all the n O n O felis and
they breed in permanent fresh water. And uh, the malaria
mosquito is a member of that one, so that's not
that's when you want to avoid as well. Yeah, no good.
And then lastly there's q lex or selex. I think
it's q lex. Yeah, that's what I would say, c
U L e X. And they breed in um quiet
(12:22):
standing water, water that's entered introspective repose, you know, like
the stuff that builds up in like an old tire
or something like that. Yeah, they sound like the dumbad.
What the standing water like in an old tire in
your yard, because that's going to breed the heck out
of some mosquitoes, especially sue lex or culex. They sound
(12:43):
like kind of the dummies of the mosquito world. They
only live for a few weeks in the summer. And um,
I think these are the ones that attack me most
in Georgia. I'm not mistaken. They're weak flyers, is what
it says. So yeah, and you can imagine those ones
that kind of like come at you like I can't
land very well, I just need to bump into you
(13:03):
with my probiscus um. But they actually the culex prefer
birds over humans, kind of like that weasel jumping on
the back of the woodpecker. That's right, I just saw.
God I feel terrible when I think about a bird
being bitten by mosquitoes and not having an arm, just
a hand to smack it. Yeah, you know, I do
(13:25):
the same thing when they're around my animals too, smack them. Oh,
I just I don't like it. Oh No one eats
the blood meal off of my dog except me. All right,
how about we go splash our faces down with some
aqua velva and continue talking about the life cycle After
this all right. We mentioned that mosquitoes were insects, and
(14:06):
that means that they hatched from eggs. That's right. Like
all insects, they could also be precocial birds, but in
this case they're not. They're insects. The females are gonna
lay their eggs in that water, Um, than the larva
and pupa stages are going to live in that water.
Pup potentially change into adults. Um, they leave the water
(14:30):
and they become the annoying pests that you hate so much. Yeah,
and I didn't realize this, but mosquitoes they can live
from a few days to several weeks, depending on the species,
depending on the environmental conditions. And I would have thought
that the they live a shorter period in colder weather,
but actually the opposite is true. They hunker down. Yeah,
(14:51):
they a female can stay alive in a cool, damp
spot over the wintering months until spring comes around. You
can get a blood meal and and lay some eggs,
which is why she she needs your blood. You have
proteins in your blood that she needs and she needs
it to lay some eggs. So let's say she's got
a blood meal, right, she's stuck you and she goes
(15:12):
and she lays some eggs, and she's going to lay
them in water. And again, depending on the species, different
types of water are gonna attract them. Like eighties, which
is a very tough word to say, it's almost all
vowels um. They're going to lay their eggs in a
place that will eventually water will come in contact with
it and carry them away other than directly into water.
(15:33):
If you've ever seen the standing water, like in that
old tire in your backyard, and you see a little
grouping of little white uh, looks like a lot of
little eggs floating together, those are mosquito. Those are eggs
floating together. That's exactly what they are. Exactly. They're sort
of laid there in a group. And I think you
said this, but it's one blood meal per hatch her
(15:56):
egg laying. Yeah, anytime they want to lay eggs, they
have to drink that blood meal. And is that the
only reason they drink the blood meal? That's all That's
what I saw. Yeah, So when you have a mosquito
biting you, that means that they have eggs that they're
ready to hatch. Yeah, so when you're killing that mosquito,
you're actually even better killing all of its future. Ye, well,
(16:18):
that makes me feel even better. So um, and then
you can also apparently you can tell what kind of
mosquito species is. Um, you're looking at based on what
hatches out of the eggs the larva, because the eggs
hatch and live, they spend the larval stage in the
pupil stage in water. I think like you said, that's right.
(16:40):
The larva are also called wigglers and um, if you've
ever seen that same group of eggs look like teeny tiny,
tiny little worms, that's the larva. Yeah, and so um
and awfully's larva will be parallel to the surface of
the water, like almost like floating right below it or
on the water surface. And then eight s and q
(17:01):
lex extend down into the water and they breathe through
air tubes like um bugs bunny using a read like
a bamboo read. Um, they're going to the larbarre gonna malt,
which is shedding their skin a few times. And I
believe that's on that fourth malt is when they become real,
(17:21):
is that right? No, they become pupa Okay, they become
the pupi pupie or tumblers is what they're called and
basically they stop eating and they get ready to spin
a sort of cocoon of sorts around themselves. Although they're
not spinning, they're enclosing themselves. And then they go in
and they turn into adults. They grow their wings, their
(17:42):
legs grow out, their probiscus grows out. If they're the
hippie male version, their hair grows out down to their shoulders.
They actually bust out of that case with air pressure. Yeah,
and I looked this up. This article makes it's it
makes appearances all for the Internet in various forms, like
it has been ripped off plenty of times. And I
(18:05):
can't find anybody who's like and this is how. This
is how they use their pressure to break open the cocoon.
I have no idea. The only thing I can think
of is that they flap their wings enough that it
increases the air pressure inside of the enclosure and it
breaks open. Oh see, I was gonna say they blow
(18:25):
it out their probiscus or something. But what if it's
a male like they don't have a probiscus. They can
blow it out mouth parts, they can blow it through
their mouthparts. No, I don't know. Yeah, I mean that's
that's is a legitimate and suggestion is mine or maybe
science got to that point and they're like who cares, Yeah,
just kill you know. Uh. When mosquitoes finally do spread
(18:50):
their wings and fly um like beautiful doves, they want
to go out and like most animals, find a mate
and mate so to make more of themselves. That's right,
it's like their job basically. And so the males they're
just sitting there feeding on plant nectar and they're like me, me, okay, me, yeah,
(19:11):
you great, And the females like, yes, um, let's do this.
And then I'm gonna go get a blood meal and
you go off and die and then I'll die later on. Yeah.
Pretty much not a lot of purpose to the mosquito's life. Well,
we'll talk about that a little bit later. Um about
whether or not we even need mosquitoes. Oh good, I
(19:32):
would love to talk about that, Okay, but not right now. UM,
let's talk about the bites. When they bite you with
that probiscus um, they actually have an anti coagulant, a
protein in the saliva that they're gonna spit out on you,
and it's gonna keep keep that blood free. Flowing while
they're sucking it up exactly. Um, a female mosquito will
(19:57):
eat until she's full. And apparently if you cut the
sensory nerve to her abdomen and cut off her indicator
that she is full, she just eating until she exploded.
Like that's what the sadist with too much time on
his hands does in very tiny tools. Yeah, he captures
some cs severs that thing so they can gorge themselves.
(20:19):
Like here here's an arm go to town. Could you
imagine seeing that? O? My god, I kind of have
seen it. There was a Tabasco commercial from years ago
where like this kind of Cajun dude is eating pizza
with Tabasco on it, remember, and then like a mosquito
comes and like sucks his blood and flies off and
it's flying away and explodes in flames. So you have
(20:41):
seen it kind of on TV. That's very nice. Um,
After you get bitten, the saliba is what causes that
immune response that you know as the bumpy itch, but
science calls it a wheel w H E A L. Yeah,
that's the puffy area around the little center prick part. Yeah,
(21:02):
and that's your body's immune response being mounted against that
anticoagulant saliva that remains after the mosquitos flown off UM,
and the wheel will eventually get better and go away,
but the itch will remain. And the itch is an
indicator that your white blood cells are still fighting off
(21:23):
or breaking down that protein in the anticoagulant saliva. UM.
Have you ever heard the old wives tale that if
you put an X or cross with your fingernail, it
won't itch. M No, you never heard that. That was
a big, like childhood thing, like if you cross make
an X on the mosquito bite with your fingernail really deeply,
(21:44):
it won't itch anymore. And it always seemed to work.
And I looked that up and it's actually a thing.
Researchers at the American Allergy Institute UM released findings about
four years ago that UH said that's actually an effective technique,
and they set it outproof form. They did studies on
several hundred people and outperformed any anti itch remedies like
(22:04):
over the counter stuff that you could put on it,
and they they reckon that it works because UM it
limits the immune response from the binding of antibodies to
antigens in the saliva. Basically, it just digs deep and
disrupts that. So there you have it. Apparently it's true
(22:26):
bold vives right again. That's right, Um, so chuck. In
addition to having an itch from a bite and having
the anticoagulant protein from the mosquito saliva stuck in your skin,
it gets way worse than that as far as mosquitoes go. Mosquitoes,
like I said, and I said it before and I'll
(22:47):
say it again, mosquitoes are a disease vector to the
nth degree and one of the things that they're very
famous for spreading. As a matter of fact, as we saw,
there's a mosquito species that included a type called the
malaria s. Mosquito is malaria, and malaria is a viral infection. No,
I'm sorry, it's a parasite that you catch from the
(23:09):
anopolies mosquito. And it takes anywhere from a few days
to a few months for symptoms to develop as the
infection grows in your bloodstream. And um, you're in big trouble. Yeah,
you're gonna be headachy and muscle achy and feverish and chili. Uh.
It can kill you. Um. But they do have anti
(23:31):
malarial drugs and I think that's one of those you
can get not a vaccine, but can't you take drugs
before you go on a trip like that? Malaria? Yeah?
And um, you can drink gin and tonics, which originally
developed by the British when they took over India. Um,
(23:51):
and we're exposed to malaria. Really. Yeah. Tonic water contains quinine,
which is found in the bark of the chichon a tree,
a k a. The fever tree. And um, it's been
like it cures and prevents malaria. So they would drink gin,
which they already had on them all the time, and
this tonic water. And then apparently tonic water was even
(24:13):
more bitter back in the day than it is today,
so they would add something like lime or cucumber or
something like that. But lime had the added benefit of
chasing off scurvy as well or preventing scurvy. So the
average safe sailor in the British navy in the mid
eighteenth cent or nineteenth century had a supply of gin,
(24:34):
tonic water, and limes. Put them all together, you got
a gin and tonic and you're preventing malaria or preventing
mesquite stead and ward off mosquitoes, does it. No, it
prevents malaria, like I guess, it prevents the parasite from
spreading in your body's something like the chinchona. The quinine
prevents the parasite from taking hold. Well, I guess I'm safe.
(24:57):
Then you're safe. But apparently a one million and people
die every year still from malaria. Unbelievable. It's that's inexcusable
in this day and age, with the ubiquity of malarial
drugs in the West. Agreed, it's like share the wealth. Yeah,
a million people a year from malaria, that's really sad.
It is. Um yellow fever is another big problem. We
(25:19):
don't have it here in the U. S Or Europe anymore,
but it is still all over the place in South
America and Africa. And it's sort of symptomatic like malaria,
worse except worse but um nausea, vomiting, jaundice, and it
can also kill you. Yes, they can't treat. They treat
the symptoms, but there is no like cure, right, yeah,
(25:40):
the only and there's no cure and the only prevention
really is to prevent mosquitoes from biting you, which is
a tall order. I imagine in parts of South America. Yeah. Yeah,
then there's encephalitis and the most famous of the encephalitis
that's spread viral and scephalitis that's spread by mosquitoes. West
Nile virus. Yeah, I thought this is interesting. It said
several types include Western Equine, Eastern Equine, West Nile, and St. Louis. Yeah,
(26:08):
just sort of stood out as odd to me. Uh,
you will get a high fever, stiff neck, headache, confusion, laziness, sleepiness. Um,
I might have West actually, And now that I think
about it, um, And we'll talk a little more about West.
Now when we talk about mosquito repellents, there's a couple
more that mosquitoes are well known for spreading dan gay
(26:30):
fever spread by my favorite the Asian tiger mosquito that
produces everything from viral flu to hemorrhagic fever. Apparently it
was it just mainly stuck around East Asia and then
in it made its first appearance in the United States,
introducing ding gay fever in the US. And the worms too.
(26:52):
They spread worms, specifically types of worms that like to
root into your eye and make you blind. Wow. Yeah,
they're they're diseased actors. HIV is not spread by mosquitoes.
Everybody knows this by now, but um, don't you remember
being a kid though and being like, oh god, yeah,
I remember growing up in that generation thinking wait a minute.
(27:15):
And I didn't even see it on the news or
as a concern, Like I remember having my own original
thought of hold on a minute, if you can get
HIV through blood and mosquitoes, or that's not my blood,
and it's like a little needle, I know. I was.
Actually it was like someone's gonna get this and things
are gonna change. But luckily, thankfully, they found out that uh,
(27:36):
the virus cannot survive in a mosquito. No, apparently it's
really it has a lot of trouble surviving outside of
its human host. It just doesn't live very long. Yeah,
we really need to do an HIV I know, it's
been long. Promise we will. We will do that very soon. So, Chuck,
we talked about all this stuff. Mosquitoes can spread and UM,
(27:57):
a lot of these things like UM yellow fever, uh
in West Nile virus. They're they're difficult to treat and
the best thing you can do is to prevent mosquitoes
from biting you. And actually I mentioned what was it
Dengey fever that made its appearance in the United States
(28:18):
in I don't know if you remember this or whatever,
there was a panic all of a sudden in New
York State. I think something like five or six people.
Um seven people died in just over a month from
September to October of and they died of an in
viral encephalitis, right, And the health officials were like, what
(28:41):
is going on? And they couldn't find anything in common
with these people. They there was no normal um epidemiological marks, right,
They just couldn't figure out where it's coming from. And
then they finally identified it as West Nile virus that
was being carried by mosquitoes, and everybody freaked out. Part
(29:02):
of the problem with this was that at the time,
a lot of people were suddenly questioning what we were
using as mosquito repellent, which is also called deep That
was the primary mosquito repellent that was in use and
still is today. And at the time people were just
starting to question because there are a lot of studies
about whether deet was safe, specifically for pregnant ladies and
(29:24):
um kids. Yeah, do you want to read the word
that is deep? Sure? All right, go ahead, and and
di ethel m tulum medea to lua Mede's almost had it, man,
try it again, and and di ethel m to luamde. Yeah,
I think that's exactly right, my friend. Which is Deep somehow,
(29:47):
that's what it's abbreviated, asked, Yeah, d E E T.
And it was created by the U. S. D a H.
The Department of Agriculture in ninety six, of course for
the Army's a military thing, like so many things created
and and um. Eventually it made its way over to
consumers in the nineteen fifties. And like you said, over
the years it's been sort of uh maligned and embraced,
(30:10):
um like a roller coaster, you know. But in the
in the height of this West Nile panic, it was
also like the it was the height of or the
bottom of faith. Indeed, as a safe thing, a safe product.
That was Deep's lowest day. Yes, it's the dark day.
(30:32):
So um. One of the reasons that people were suspicious
of Deep is that it's a plasticizer, which means it
can melt plastic. Yea, that's one thing. So that's enough
for me, So spray that on your skin, um, and
then there was a study of UH in two thousand
two of about nine pregnant women in Thailand, and it
(30:55):
investigated their bloodstream for DEEP. And the thing is with Deep,
when you put it on your skin, most of the
time you're it's absorbed at a rate that your liver
can break it down, and when you finally pee it out,
it's been completely metabolized and it's safe if I guess right,
that's what they say. Well, this study in Thailand showed,
(31:15):
it showed something different, and it scared everybody. Yeah, it
showed that, Um, they actually found the chemical in the
umbilical cord of eight percent of the women, so that
across the placental barrier, and that freaked people out so understandably, right,
that spread like wildfire. Everybody was freaked out about Deep.
(31:35):
And then simultaneously there there were long standing reports of
children having seizures from using Deep. Is that true? I
can't quite tell. What I get is if you use
Deep in normal concentrations on your skin, which they say
it used to be, But then they found that anything
(31:57):
over fifty is really about the same, right, Yeah, it's
diminished return. So you want to just use fifty or
no more than fifty and when they figured that out,
they just dropped it down to thirty. They rounded down
for some reason. Um, but apparently, if you use it
in a normal concentration on your skin, um you're okay. Allegedly,
and a bunch of different groups have come out and said, deets, okay,
(32:18):
as long as you follow the label and you're using
a normal concentration. If you get in your mouth, for example,
though then all of a sudden, the concentrations are hundreds
of times higher than if it's on your skin. So
these kids licking their arms and stuff. Supposedly that was
the common link to the seizures and kids, but apparently
it was never demonstrated to everyone's satisfaction. And some people
(32:40):
are like, well, seizures are way more common in children
than in an adults, so maybe it's just a coincidence
that these kids also had bugs bray on at the
time they have their seizure. I don't I try not
to use the no And you are one of enough
people that there's a pretty decent market for alternatives, a
deep for mosquito repellents that have been developed over the years.
(33:03):
That's what I usually do. What do you use? Oh?
I mean back in the day, use the the old
skin so soft, which, yeah, I don't know, maybe it
worked a little bit. Well, you know what's funny is
like this whole deep scare people started asking questions about
and they're like, well, how does it work? And apparently
scientists were they had to say, like, we're not. I'm
(33:24):
sure we think that it confuses the the um it
masks the c O two that's omitted by humans. Interesting,
So that's what they think. They've also found that since
DEED is really effective at doing that, they found other
compounds too that do similar things that that fit a
(33:44):
CEO two receptor or a non all in all receptor.
And um, so the mosquitoes confused and doesn't know where
to bite or sting or whatever. Um. I think uh,
Emily made a little homemade concoction once. I think out
of that lemon eucalyptus oil that you mentioned in your
(34:04):
own article. Yes, that's that's one lemon eucalyptus oil. Um,
there's soybean oil. Yeah, that's supposed to work pretty good, right. Supposedly,
a two percent concentration of soybean oil prevents mosquitoes from
biting between one and a half and seven hours. That's
pretty great. And this is soybean oil. This is the
same stuff you can like eat in your food, so
(34:25):
it's very safe. What about citranilla oil, because Jerry came
in here bragging about all her citranilla oil plants that
she has surrounded her lavish gardens. Jerry was wrong. So
the citranilla oil apparently does kind of work, but it
works way better if you extract the active ingredients gerenniol.
(34:46):
So if you've got the the citranilla torches, uh, then
that's doing a better job than just having the plant
around her. I would guess if anything, that's probably attracting
them through the heat. Oh, attracting them, I would guess.
But see, I think the smoke helps get rid of them.
So there's two things you can do with mosquitoes, right.
You can protect yourself by masking yourself like the from
(35:07):
this the volatile compounds that you're emitting, right, and then
you can also distract and bait them. And they they
somebody did a study in two thousand thirteen at u
C Riverside. They analyzed half a million compounds that had
a structure that fit mosquito ceo two receptors, and they
found a hundred and thirty eight that we're safe fish,
(35:29):
and they zoned in on two of them. One is
ethel Pyra eight, which has a fruity smell that humans
find pleasant and testing it's safe for use in foods
and um. It apparently masks the skin as well as
deep does. And then there's also cyclopentanone, which has a
minty smell that attracts mosquitoes that you could use for
(35:52):
like a trap. Did you put like in the back
of your yard right? I will say this the you know,
they make a lot of things like mosquito traps, um
bug zappers, which do not work. Uh. If you have
a bug zapper, all you're doing is killing a lot
of like really cool insects, you know, like moths and things. Um.
(36:14):
Those things that you hook up to like a tank
and roll out into your yard. I don't think those
are supposed to work very well. It's like propane. I
don't know what it is. I've seen it before, though, Okay,
I don't think it's propane. UM. I'll have to look
into that, but I've heard they don't work. Do you
remember that, UM, Like years back, it was kind of
(36:35):
a trend among UM radio stations. They said that they
were playing a low frequency sound that mosquitoes that humans
couldn't hear, but repelled mosquito that why, just to listen
to their stations. I don't know if it was actually
transmitted or if it was just a hoax. It sounds
like a hoax to me. So you said you had
(36:55):
something about mosquitoes and whether we actually need them or not, right, Yeah,
but real quickly. They also make um mosquito proof clothing
where this this they're iron suits, you know, but chemicals
are actually in in the fabric itself to ward off mosquitoes.
I remember I wrote something about that at one point,
and I just remember thinking, I'm never gonna buy something
(37:17):
like this and wash them with my regular clothes. Maybe
I'm an alarmist. Supposedly there's um there's a chemical that
is just to be used on your clothing, not your skin.
Why is because it's a deadly, deadly poisoned neurotoxin to humans. Yeah,
(37:37):
that is we should actually say the name of that permethrin. Yeah,
that is for clothing only. And um, if I see
something like that, I'm just not gonna use it, Like,
don't get any on your skin, but you can put
it on your T shirt just fine, and don't look
at happy fun ball. Uh. So we have another article
(37:57):
on our website called what if mosquitoes went It's ext
inked because apparently there are some scientists that have been investigating,
like how to increase the male population enough that there
just aren't females anymore. Uh, and you know, no more offspring.
And there's a few things. There are some birds in
the Arctic tundra that you know, migrate and feed on mosquito,
(38:21):
so it could disrupt that. And then of course the
whole chain reaction thing that we've talked about before in
the food chain. You know what could that mean? Um?
There there's actual mosquito fish and an other fish feed
on mosquitoes and their larvae. Um. But the general consensus
from sciences, you know, if mosquitoes went away, they'd probably
just adapt and find other meals and it wouldn't set
(38:43):
off some awful reaction like bees would. You know, Well,
we could use this as proof positive once and for
all that humans are capable or never ever should intervene
in ecology and ecological stuff. Let's let's do it. Let's
see if we can remove mosquitoes from the planet. You know,
(39:05):
there's not I was waiting for some big thing like
mosquitoes are really so important, but not really. Nope, like
the animals, they'll just those fish. The mosquito fish, I guess,
will be the the whatever, the gnatfish or the fly fish.
It's the like fly larva more. Anyway, I don't care. Yeah,
(39:25):
I'd say that's worthy of an experiment. Let's get rid
of it. I have feel not bad at all about
saying that. Uh well, if you want to know more
about mosquitoes, you're born enemy. You can type that word
into the search part how stuff works dot Com. And
since I said search parts, it's time for listener mail.
(39:46):
I am going to call this one. What what is this?
Oh my, I'm gonna call this I I see dead people.
Um guys, I've been listening to your awesome show for
about a year, and I'm working my way through the
back catalog. Last week I listened to you How Stunt
Men and Stunt Women Works. Great episode, Chuck mentioned the
Vic Morrow helicopter accident from the Twilight Zone, and uh,
(40:08):
I said it was actually on YouTube, which is something
I never knew. Despite the warning from Chuck not to watch.
I did it. Next time, I'll listen. It is rough.
One thing I did learn, though, from the accident was
um the subsequent research on it was that John Landis
directed that segment, which I knew because he brought on charges. Um.
This brings me to the reason I'm writing. I met
John land Is, said a couple of years ago at
(40:31):
the Burbank Airport. He was really friendly and jovial and
took a picture with my friend. Uh. In my opinion,
in the opinion of many others, by the way landis
Is actions heavily contributed to the tragic deaths of Vic
Morrow and the two children. Despite living in l A
and working in the entertainment industry, I really don't meet
any many celebrities and consider life to be easier because
(40:51):
of it. However, other celebrities I have met included Aaron Hernandez,
who's the New England Patriot that's in for murdering now
and Ray Lewis, who was acquitted of murder back in
the day. Uh. And while I didn't officially meet him,
Charles S. Dutton was in my office once and we
exchanged the polite nod. So when you add them all up.
(41:13):
The celebrities I personally encountered range from definitely to possibility
possibly responsible for nine violent deaths. Wow, how about that?
Jeez um, Charles Dutton, did he got somebody? Yeah, he
spent like his youth in prison. Oh that's right, he
went to prison and got out and became famous. Okay,
(41:36):
I've learned a great deal from your podcast over the
year that I've been listening, and now I have learned
that for my own safety and for the betterment of
humanity in general, my celebrity interactions must be kept to
a minimum. I know. For legal reasons, this email will
never make it a listener mail reverse psychology, I got
that kind of always works. Actually, I don't see what
(41:57):
the legal reasons are. Nothing. This guy's like signed a
lawyer inflammatory in here and that is from name redacted.
M thank your name redacted. You have an unusual name. Yeah.
He also goes by anonymous. Oh or yeah, Detroit. That's right,
that's what we should use as a name redacted or anonymous,
Yeah Detroit. All right, So thank you, yeah Detroit for
(42:18):
that email. Way to go you had, Detroit. If you
want to get in touch with us and let us
know any weird stuff about yourself that's pretty cool. Um.
You can tweet to us at s y s K podcast.
You can join us on Facebook dot com, slash Stuff
you Should Know. You can send us an email to
Stuff Podcast at Housetuff works dot com and has always
joined us at at home on the web, Stuff you
Should Know dot com For more on this and thousands
(42:45):
of other topics, does it how stuff works dot com
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