WEBVTT - Welcome to the Mosquito Factory 0:00:03.120 --> 0:00:05.960 Welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind from how Stuff 0:00:06.000 --> 0:00:14.800 Works dot com. Hey, you welcome to Stuff to Blow 0:00:14.840 --> 0:00:17.080 your Mind. My name is Robert Lamb and I am 0:00:17.160 --> 0:00:20.400 Christian Seger. Hey. The other night, I went outside to 0:00:20.400 --> 0:00:23.160 bring my dogs in before we went to bed covered 0:00:23.160 --> 0:00:25.320 in mosquito. B It's it's that season, it is. I 0:00:25.400 --> 0:00:28.200 was just and I can't do anything, like even if 0:00:28.240 --> 0:00:30.000 I get out there and I start putting the spray on, 0:00:30.080 --> 0:00:33.000 they get to me before then. Yeah. We uh, we 0:00:33.080 --> 0:00:34.800 have we have a company that comes in sprays the 0:00:34.960 --> 0:00:39.960 yard with some sort of biologically friendly stuff. It's not 0:00:40.000 --> 0:00:42.600 friendly to the mosquitoes obviously, or I think to the 0:00:42.600 --> 0:00:45.199 bees either, but it allows us to actually go out 0:00:45.200 --> 0:00:47.600 in our yard and not have to worry as much 0:00:47.720 --> 0:00:50.599 about the mosquitoes. But yeah, this is a terrible time 0:00:50.640 --> 0:00:53.559 for mosquitoes just in general. Uh. And on top of that, 0:00:53.600 --> 0:00:56.920 we have all the added concerns about the zekov right, 0:00:57.000 --> 0:00:59.880 especially because like as we're recording this, there's just been 0:00:59.880 --> 0:01:03.760 announced that it's zico virus has been found in Florida, right, 0:01:04.120 --> 0:01:07.560 which we are in Georgia. That's not that far away. Uh, 0:01:07.600 --> 0:01:10.119 And I suspect highly that there are a lot of people, 0:01:10.240 --> 0:01:13.319 especially pregnant women, who are very concerned about that. Yeah. 0:01:13.319 --> 0:01:15.160 I mean I have a couple of friends who are 0:01:15.160 --> 0:01:19.560 currently pregnant and they have been, uh, very very mindful 0:01:19.680 --> 0:01:22.440 of the scenario. So we thought it would be a 0:01:22.440 --> 0:01:25.000 good opportunity to talk a little bit, a little bit 0:01:25.040 --> 0:01:28.760 about mosquitoes in general, the pressure on what this organism is, 0:01:28.840 --> 0:01:31.920 why they're so successful, but more importantly getting into one 0:01:31.959 --> 0:01:36.800 of the more unique strategies out there to combat the mosquitoes, 0:01:37.440 --> 0:01:40.520 that is the mosquito factory. Yeah, and you covered this 0:01:41.040 --> 0:01:44.240 for How Stuff Works now was it last week? So 0:01:44.400 --> 0:01:47.160 if if you you guys are interested in hearing more 0:01:47.200 --> 0:01:49.760 about this and diving a little deeper. Robert both wrote 0:01:49.760 --> 0:01:52.600 an article about it, and uh did a short video 0:01:52.640 --> 0:01:55.000 that's about three minutes long. And I imagine that we'll 0:01:55.040 --> 0:01:56.880 be able to post that to our social media fairly 0:01:56.960 --> 0:01:59.440 soon too. Yeah, and that'll contain a link to our 0:01:59.480 --> 0:02:02.040 podcast probably in the podcast landing page will definitely have 0:02:02.080 --> 0:02:03.880 links back to the blue. We can combine them all, 0:02:03.960 --> 0:02:06.240 so like, depending on how deep you want to dive 0:02:06.280 --> 0:02:08.880 into mosquito land, you know, it's all right there in 0:02:08.960 --> 0:02:11.880 one suite for you. But but the video is really 0:02:11.919 --> 0:02:14.760 cool because you talk about this new innovation in China, 0:02:14.919 --> 0:02:16.799 which is a big part of what we're gonna talk 0:02:16.800 --> 0:02:21.760 about today, using Walbakia bacteria in mosquitoes to try to 0:02:21.840 --> 0:02:25.360 basically kill off the population of mosquitoes that spread dengae 0:02:25.400 --> 0:02:29.800 fever and zica. Yeah, to kill off, but also to 0:02:29.960 --> 0:02:33.480 manage and redefine. Really so it's it's pretty interesting because 0:02:33.480 --> 0:02:36.520 it goes it's we'll discuss it goes beyond merely wiping 0:02:36.560 --> 0:02:40.280 out your enemy but also manipulating your enemy, and there's 0:02:40.480 --> 0:02:44.360 there's you know, potential consequences to rewards like that as well. 0:02:44.400 --> 0:02:46.600 We're gonna talk about all of that today on the episode. 0:02:47.320 --> 0:02:49.800 But to start off, we're gonna we're gonna discuss the 0:02:49.919 --> 0:02:52.960 enemy itself, the mosquito. And the mosquito is a weird 0:02:53.960 --> 0:02:58.160 creature to to discuss because it it's unlike most of 0:02:58.160 --> 0:03:00.400 the creatures that you're able you're generally going to encounter 0:03:00.440 --> 0:03:03.680 in your daily life. It is most certainly the enemy. Yeah, 0:03:03.680 --> 0:03:08.000 it's true, right, Like nobody feels sorry for mosquitoes, even like, 0:03:08.000 --> 0:03:10.720 like I'm a as as people know from listening to 0:03:10.760 --> 0:03:13.200 this show, we talk about this sometimes, I'm a vegetarian, 0:03:13.320 --> 0:03:16.040 and yet like if I'm getting bitten by mosquito, my 0:03:16.080 --> 0:03:19.880 automatic reaction is like smack that thing, you know, get 0:03:19.880 --> 0:03:21.960 it or get it away from me as fast as possible, 0:03:22.000 --> 0:03:26.119 you know. Even uh geez, Like even cockroaches sometimes I'll 0:03:26.120 --> 0:03:28.040 be like a little nicer to and like try to 0:03:28.040 --> 0:03:29.519 scoop them up and get them out of the house 0:03:29.600 --> 0:03:31.640 or something. But a mosquito, I'm just like, no, I 0:03:31.639 --> 0:03:33.760 don't want to deal with this. Yeah, there's just there's 0:03:33.800 --> 0:03:38.480 absolutely no remorse, and it's it's been weird raising a child. 0:03:38.800 --> 0:03:41.440 My son is now four, and we've been really trying 0:03:41.480 --> 0:03:45.320 to emphasize that you need to be compassionate. And you know, 0:03:45.360 --> 0:03:48.600 we don't just sqush bugs because they're there. We we 0:03:48.680 --> 0:03:51.120 take an interest in them. We give them the distance 0:03:51.160 --> 0:03:52.840 they need, and when we find something the house, we 0:03:52.920 --> 0:03:56.000 light it out, you know. But the mosquito, that's the 0:03:56.000 --> 0:03:58.400 the only creature where we've taught him. Oh, if you 0:03:58.400 --> 0:04:00.920 see one of those who snack it um, and if 0:04:00.920 --> 0:04:02.760 you see it on someone else, you can even smack it, 0:04:03.080 --> 0:04:05.800 you know, whatever the costs. This is our enemy and 0:04:05.840 --> 0:04:09.680 we must defeated, no matter no matter what. Yeah. Yeah, well, 0:04:09.800 --> 0:04:12.680 especially like I don't know if your son is like this, 0:04:12.720 --> 0:04:15.360 but I remember growing up, like my mom used to 0:04:15.360 --> 0:04:17.400 always say like, oh, they love your ears, because I 0:04:17.400 --> 0:04:20.640 would get just mosquitoes would go right behind my ears always, 0:04:20.760 --> 0:04:22.640 and maybe that was just like the best source of 0:04:22.680 --> 0:04:25.520 blood or something like that. They're they're drawn to him, um, 0:04:25.520 --> 0:04:27.279 and he he seems to have more of a reaction 0:04:27.320 --> 0:04:29.440 to him. And he's the kids, so he scratched him 0:04:29.480 --> 0:04:33.360 more so. So even on days where I'm not wearing sprays, 0:04:33.400 --> 0:04:36.240 like we're just spraying all sorts of stuff on him 0:04:36.360 --> 0:04:38.480 and the injury's covered up. Otherwise, they just eat him 0:04:38.480 --> 0:04:41.320 a lot. Yeah. Yeah, And it's uh, We've we talked 0:04:41.320 --> 0:04:44.320 about this a little bit on our vampire episode when 0:04:44.360 --> 0:04:48.520 we when we were talking about the science of vampires 0:04:48.640 --> 0:04:50.960 drinking blood, right, and we sort of compared it to 0:04:51.000 --> 0:04:53.560 the mosquito and the science of that. If you're interested 0:04:53.560 --> 0:04:55.560 in that, you go back and check out that episode. 0:04:55.560 --> 0:04:58.160 But this made me think of that, right because of 0:04:58.160 --> 0:05:00.200 the like the sort of idea of if you just 0:05:00.279 --> 0:05:04.599 let mosquitoes drink you constantly, it would still take them 0:05:04.640 --> 0:05:07.320 like months to drain a body. And yet like they're 0:05:07.360 --> 0:05:12.600 such a constant annoying pest because they don't drink you 0:05:12.640 --> 0:05:14.000 all at once. They just get a little sip here, 0:05:14.000 --> 0:05:15.960 a little sip here exactly from this guy, a little 0:05:15.960 --> 0:05:17.720 from this gal. And I think if I remember from 0:05:17.760 --> 0:05:20.120 the Vampire episode that was sort of the proposal for 0:05:20.160 --> 0:05:23.120 the functional vampire was that's how they should operate as well, right, 0:05:23.760 --> 0:05:26.159 all right, So let's talk about this, uh, this most 0:05:26.200 --> 0:05:29.800 perfect organism, the mosquito. The world is currently home to 0:05:30.160 --> 0:05:35.240 roughly thirty five hundred named species of mosquitoes, though only 0:05:35.240 --> 0:05:39.480 about two hundred or so directly bother humans. Um. And 0:05:39.680 --> 0:05:41.680 you can't really blame him, right because, I mean, just 0:05:41.720 --> 0:05:44.800 look at us, like the mosquito. We thrive with these 0:05:44.839 --> 0:05:48.160 throughout most of the world. We also offer large expanses 0:05:48.200 --> 0:05:52.159 of relatively hairless skin, all of it coursing with delicious blood. 0:05:52.320 --> 0:05:55.200 And we have we tend to be distracted by stuff. 0:05:55.240 --> 0:05:58.520 You know. It's like my son walks outside, he's just 0:05:58.560 --> 0:06:00.600 doing his thing. Yeah, I'm working on the porch, and 0:06:00.560 --> 0:06:02.800 then everybody else in the neighborhood is playing Pokemon Go, 0:06:03.440 --> 0:06:07.320 just just just sitting there waiting to be sucked dry 0:06:07.360 --> 0:06:09.520 by the mosquito. Somebody should do a study on the 0:06:09.520 --> 0:06:14.840 effect of pokemon go on on mosquito population. Probably it's 0:06:14.839 --> 0:06:17.520 probably done a lot for him. We also have to 0:06:17.520 --> 0:06:20.880 remember two of those species, though it's only the females 0:06:20.920 --> 0:06:23.919 that are drinking blood. Yeah, that's that's one of the 0:06:23.920 --> 0:06:28.320 important factors here. The females drink the blood because they 0:06:28.320 --> 0:06:30.800 have to use the blood to UH as part of 0:06:30.800 --> 0:06:34.960 their reproductive cycle to actually develop the eggs. The males 0:06:35.040 --> 0:06:37.440 they do not drink the blood. And we'll and we'll 0:06:37.440 --> 0:06:39.599 get back to the difference between the males and the 0:06:39.600 --> 0:06:42.960 females in a minute. Um. Mosquitoes in general, though they're 0:06:42.960 --> 0:06:46.400 accomplished flyers, as you know very well from your attempts 0:06:46.400 --> 0:06:50.000 to kill them. Their skills at infiltrating human habitats. They can, 0:06:50.040 --> 0:06:53.840 they hitch c spanning rides. They invade new continents, as 0:06:53.880 --> 0:06:57.080 we see with the invasive yellow fever carrying aidis agypty 0:06:57.080 --> 0:07:00.400 in South America. They also benefit from an inc readibly 0:07:00.440 --> 0:07:03.600 fast reproductive cycle. All they need is the tiniest bit 0:07:03.640 --> 0:07:06.480 of standing water to deposit their eggs in, which developed 0:07:06.480 --> 0:07:11.560 into their aquatic wriggling larva. UH. Abandoned swimming pools and 0:07:11.560 --> 0:07:13.680 bird baths are great, but they can also make do 0:07:13.880 --> 0:07:16.600 with a pet bow, candy rapp or even like just 0:07:16.640 --> 0:07:19.000 small puddles and cracks in the earth. So one of 0:07:19.000 --> 0:07:20.640 the things that I read for this that didn't make 0:07:20.680 --> 0:07:22.960 it into the notes was that in Brazil, where they're 0:07:23.000 --> 0:07:24.440 very you know, we're gonna talk about that later, and 0:07:24.480 --> 0:07:28.360 I'm very concerned about this. Uh, they actually sent military 0:07:28.400 --> 0:07:30.480 out home to home to make sure that there weren't 0:07:30.480 --> 0:07:34.040 tires in the yards filled with water. Yeah, because that 0:07:34.120 --> 0:07:37.480 big of a problem they need to, like, uh, their 0:07:37.520 --> 0:07:41.760 primary concern is managing these these stale water sources are sorry, 0:07:41.800 --> 0:07:43.920 stagnant water sources. But but you know, it's one of 0:07:43.920 --> 0:07:46.520 those things where, yeah, you can go to homes, you 0:07:46.520 --> 0:07:49.200 can sweep the area, and you can turn over old 0:07:49.640 --> 0:07:52.720 old kiddy swimming pools and old tires, but they're all 0:07:52.720 --> 0:07:55.200 those little things, I mean, just a candy wrap. You know. 0:07:55.880 --> 0:08:00.200 They're just wonderful infiltrators. And they have four stages that 0:07:59.880 --> 0:08:03.160 there's the adult, there's the water surface eggs, and then 0:08:03.200 --> 0:08:06.960 there's the sub surface larva. They breathe through snorkels of 0:08:07.000 --> 0:08:10.000 sort a little breathing tracheal tubes that poke up through 0:08:10.000 --> 0:08:13.040 the surface of the water and then when those developed, 0:08:13.520 --> 0:08:16.440 then the mosquito comes up up to the surface, flies off, 0:08:16.640 --> 0:08:19.280 and they're ready to go. Yeah, they're vicious, and then 0:08:19.320 --> 0:08:22.440 they like it's so incredibly quick. And that's part of 0:08:22.480 --> 0:08:26.160 the difficulty of trying to manage their populations too, is 0:08:26.720 --> 0:08:30.040 how fast they breed and their cycle of life is. 0:08:31.800 --> 0:08:33.640 Now they've been with us a while. They've been around 0:08:33.720 --> 0:08:36.880 roughly one hundred million years, according to the sources I 0:08:36.960 --> 0:08:40.560 was looking at, And according to Dark Banquet author Bill 0:08:40.600 --> 0:08:43.160 Shoot we mentioned on the vampire episode because that's an 0:08:43.160 --> 0:08:46.040 excellent book about blood drinkers in general, with an emphasis 0:08:46.120 --> 0:08:48.640 on bats, but also some of the discussion of mosquitoes. 0:08:48.960 --> 0:08:51.800 He points out that the oldest evidence for blood feeding 0:08:52.120 --> 0:08:56.080 actually comes from a fossil proto mosquito from the Triassic 0:08:56.200 --> 0:08:59.280 period two hundred twenty million years ago. Now, this is 0:08:59.280 --> 0:09:01.400 the time when there were no flowering plants, so the 0:09:01.440 --> 0:09:05.239 elongated probiscus on this creature is thought to have functioned 0:09:05.559 --> 0:09:08.560 more or less like the modern mosquitoes. I'm imagining that 0:09:08.600 --> 0:09:12.800 they were bigger, though everything was bigger. Yeah, it's it's 0:09:12.840 --> 0:09:15.559 like the one that Homer Simpson kills. Yeah, exactly. It 0:09:15.720 --> 0:09:18.600 travels back in time. Now you'll find mosquitoes and every 0:09:18.640 --> 0:09:23.000 continent except Antarctica, they thrive, and even our most exhaustive 0:09:23.200 --> 0:09:26.360 steps to eradicate them often only serves to do them 0:09:26.360 --> 0:09:28.880 in for a short period of time. Uh, there's a 0:09:28.960 --> 0:09:32.360 there's an article in Technology Review that came out recently 0:09:32.559 --> 0:09:34.520 looking at some of the efforts were discussing here, and 0:09:34.559 --> 0:09:38.240 they pointed out that Brazilian officials declared invasive yellow fever 0:09:38.360 --> 0:09:42.520 carrying a Us a Gypti mosquitoes eradicated in night following 0:09:42.840 --> 0:09:44.920 some rather intense efforts. Is kind of door to door 0:09:45.000 --> 0:09:47.559 kind of thing we're talking about here, only to experience 0:09:47.679 --> 0:09:50.200 reinvasion in the decades to follow, and then you're right 0:09:50.240 --> 0:09:52.520 back where you were to begin with. Yeah, it's uh, 0:09:52.720 --> 0:09:54.280 that was that was a time where they were they 0:09:54.280 --> 0:09:56.960 were using a lot of sprays as well as like 0:09:57.400 --> 0:09:59.599 sort of like you know, like you said, door to 0:09:59.679 --> 0:10:02.280 doorm management, trying to make sure everyone was following sort 0:10:02.280 --> 0:10:05.280 of best practices, and yet here they are it's back 0:10:05.480 --> 0:10:08.480 worse than ever. Now, this is interesting. We've we've mentioned 0:10:08.480 --> 0:10:11.920 the difference between males and females, even though the females 0:10:11.920 --> 0:10:14.440 are the only ones doing the blood drinking both sexes 0:10:14.480 --> 0:10:18.640 of the of mosquito take advantage of plant nectar for nourishment, right, Yeah, 0:10:18.920 --> 0:10:21.240 that's one of the big concerns along the lines of 0:10:21.280 --> 0:10:24.840 eradicating them is what would it do to the plant 0:10:24.880 --> 0:10:28.079 population that's pollinating. Yeah, yeah, we'll and and we'll we'll 0:10:28.080 --> 0:10:30.080 get into that and the like I think the final 0:10:30.120 --> 0:10:33.360 portion of the podcast. But yeah, people often don't realize 0:10:33.400 --> 0:10:36.240 that that in addition to drinking blood, they're also visiting 0:10:36.320 --> 0:10:40.280 these different plants um and the female blood drinking. If 0:10:40.320 --> 0:10:44.520 nothing else, that really knocks the already shaky science foundation 0:10:44.600 --> 0:10:47.679 out from under. The two thousand five sci fi original 0:10:47.720 --> 0:10:52.000 picture Man Squito, in which a half man, half mosquito 0:10:52.120 --> 0:10:55.320 hybrid sucks blood and seeks out a female mate. If 0:10:55.320 --> 0:10:58.520 you've seen this, I've not seen it. I'm I've heard 0:10:58.800 --> 0:11:01.360 of it, and I gosh, I can't remember off the 0:11:01.400 --> 0:11:03.240 top of my head, but I just feel like there 0:11:03.280 --> 0:11:06.920 are a lot of sort of giant mosquito or or 0:11:07.240 --> 0:11:12.319 where mosquito type things in like some pretty trashy science fiction. Actually, 0:11:12.520 --> 0:11:15.360 you know what's a good one. In that China Mieville 0:11:15.480 --> 0:11:19.560 boss Log universe, there's a species I think they're called 0:11:19.600 --> 0:11:23.319 the anopolies or something like that. Uh, and their mosquito 0:11:23.400 --> 0:11:27.200 women that like zip around on wings and like attack 0:11:27.240 --> 0:11:29.840 people and drain them dry. Well he got the sex 0:11:29.920 --> 0:11:32.559 right at Yeah he did. Well, you know Meavil does 0:11:32.600 --> 0:11:35.880 his research. Now. I don't want to hate on Manskitot 0:11:35.960 --> 0:11:41.240 too much because the director uh Pbore Takas. He actually 0:11:41.280 --> 0:11:44.160 gave us the super fun Night seven film The Gate. 0:11:44.280 --> 0:11:46.200 I yeah, I like the Gate I saw that recently, 0:11:46.280 --> 0:11:48.200 and and to follow up the Night ninety Nines the 0:11:48.200 --> 0:11:52.000 gate To, both of which were yeah, tremendous fun. Yeah. 0:11:52.040 --> 0:11:54.480 I think a young what's his name, the villain from 0:11:54.480 --> 0:11:57.280 the first Blade movie was in Oh, yeah, you're right, God, 0:11:57.280 --> 0:12:00.720 what is his name? Stephen Dorff? That's the one. Okay, yeah, 0:12:00.840 --> 0:12:05.200 young Stephen Dorff demon summoning wishes granted and then wishes 0:12:05.200 --> 0:12:08.680 turning into poop after the fact that it's a pretty 0:12:08.679 --> 0:12:11.040 fair that's like back when they made horror movies for 0:12:11.120 --> 0:12:14.400 little kids, and I guess we have goose bumps nowadays. Well, 0:12:14.880 --> 0:12:16.840 you know, maybe we'll get back into that. I feel 0:12:16.840 --> 0:12:18.920 like that's one of the strengths of the recent Netflix 0:12:19.000 --> 0:12:22.400 hit Stranger Things, so it catch into that that childhood 0:12:22.400 --> 0:12:26.920 adventure scenario exactly. Um, certainly, even though I don't think 0:12:26.920 --> 0:12:29.960 there are any direct references to the Gate in that show, 0:12:30.160 --> 0:12:33.800 that's a little bit of the Gates DNA. Yeah, alright, 0:12:33.840 --> 0:12:36.760 So anyway, the females do feed on the blood, and 0:12:36.800 --> 0:12:38.600 they feed on it a lot, and they feed by 0:12:38.640 --> 0:12:42.040 dipping into an organism's blood and then another organism's blood 0:12:42.080 --> 0:12:46.000 and then another, making them an ideal disease factor. Yeah. 0:12:46.040 --> 0:12:48.040 So this is where the real problem comes about, and 0:12:48.200 --> 0:12:52.840 especially with this atis a Gyp dy uh species, because 0:12:52.880 --> 0:12:55.960 they're the ones that really are carrying so many of 0:12:56.000 --> 0:13:00.480 these diseases that are problematic for the human population. Of course, 0:13:00.800 --> 0:13:03.040 one of the big ones, the most famous one perhaps 0:13:03.120 --> 0:13:07.440 even malaria, and according to some estimate estimations, mosquito born 0:13:07.480 --> 0:13:12.000 malaria kills one human being every twelve seconds. That's how 0:13:12.040 --> 0:13:15.200 pervasive a problem this is. Well, they're also responsible for 0:13:15.280 --> 0:13:19.160 dog heartworm, also dengay fever, which we're gonna be talking 0:13:19.160 --> 0:13:22.440 about a lot today. You mentioned yellow fever already. There's 0:13:22.440 --> 0:13:29.080 also estern equine and sephalitis. St. Louis encephalitis, lacrosse and scephalitis, 0:13:29.160 --> 0:13:35.400 Western equine and sephalitis all is there a plural for encephalitis. 0:13:35.559 --> 0:13:38.839 I think we just sephalitis is just created, and then 0:13:38.880 --> 0:13:42.440 West Nile virus, and now of course zekra, which everybody 0:13:42.520 --> 0:13:45.000 is very concerned about. Now, I just wanted to give 0:13:45.080 --> 0:13:47.679 us like a very tiny primer. Obviously there's a lot 0:13:47.760 --> 0:13:50.360 of out there about ZEKEI right now, but you know, frankly, 0:13:50.400 --> 0:13:54.199 like I wasn't quite aware of like the actual symptoms 0:13:54.240 --> 0:13:57.120 of it. For most people, it just causes a mild rash. 0:13:57.240 --> 0:14:00.600 The real concern here is the link to four thousand 0:14:00.720 --> 0:14:04.840 Brazilian children that were born with microcephaly or what's sometimes 0:14:04.840 --> 0:14:08.079 called shrunken heads um. But we currently don't have a 0:14:08.160 --> 0:14:12.240 vaccine for ZEKA, and developing a vaccine could take years, 0:14:12.760 --> 0:14:15.199 so that there's a lot of concern about it. Also, 0:14:15.240 --> 0:14:19.760 I believe it is sexually transmittable as well. Yeah, see 0:14:19.840 --> 0:14:23.440 I did not know that. So it's it's we're continuing 0:14:23.480 --> 0:14:26.360 to learn exactly how it works and the problems and 0:14:26.480 --> 0:14:29.080 trying to fight it, which often comes back around to 0:14:29.280 --> 0:14:33.560 fighting mosquitoes, fighting the the the vectors that are spreading 0:14:33.560 --> 0:14:35.440 it from one person to the next, And in the 0:14:35.480 --> 0:14:38.760 past we've depended on powerful and secticides like DDT to 0:14:38.840 --> 0:14:41.840 curb mosquito populations, but we've been forced to try different 0:14:41.880 --> 0:14:46.120 approaches in recent years, including the use of of a 0:14:46.280 --> 0:14:51.600 natural occurring soil bacterium called Bacillus the ginus that actually 0:14:51.680 --> 0:14:54.600 kills the insect larva. And then of course there are 0:14:54.600 --> 0:14:57.120 there are more advanced techniques, and that's really what we're 0:14:57.160 --> 0:14:59.960 going to talk about today. Some of these these really 0:15:00.880 --> 0:15:06.280 really intriguing ideas that go far beyond nearly gassing the countryside. Yeah, 0:15:06.440 --> 0:15:08.320 so let's take a quick break and then when we 0:15:08.360 --> 0:15:10.640 come back, we're going to talk to you about the 0:15:10.680 --> 0:15:14.080 mosquito factory, in particular one that's in China and another 0:15:14.200 --> 0:15:24.560 in Australia. So, yes, the first couple of mosquito factories 0:15:24.560 --> 0:15:27.720 as they're called because they are we should just go 0:15:27.760 --> 0:15:30.200 and get this out of the way. They are basically 0:15:30.840 --> 0:15:34.840 endeavors to breed mosquitoes and pump them out to essentially 0:15:34.880 --> 0:15:38.520 math produced mosquitoes, pump them out into the population in 0:15:38.520 --> 0:15:42.600 an attempt to control the shape of that population. So 0:15:42.600 --> 0:15:46.040 this is one of the limitations of the podcast medium. Uh. 0:15:46.080 --> 0:15:47.720 And but what we'll be able to add some of 0:15:47.720 --> 0:15:51.640 this to the landing page. The Atlantic did a great 0:15:51.720 --> 0:15:55.520 article photojournalism article that we used as a resource for 0:15:55.560 --> 0:15:57.520 this to learn more about it. And it was a 0:15:57.560 --> 0:15:59.520 series of I want to say, like what twenty photos 0:15:59.680 --> 0:16:04.680 of the inside factories and man alive it. It made 0:16:04.680 --> 0:16:08.240 me itchy just looking at them. Uh. It's it's photos 0:16:08.280 --> 0:16:10.760 of what the inside of these labs look like, how 0:16:10.840 --> 0:16:13.960 they've they've got like it shows people just these jars 0:16:14.080 --> 0:16:17.560 filled the mosquitoes, or they've got racks where they've got 0:16:17.600 --> 0:16:20.760 mosquito larvae and they're like manually picking out the males 0:16:20.800 --> 0:16:25.080 from the females. And it's just until you see it, 0:16:25.080 --> 0:16:28.320 it really doesn't I don't know ring home just how 0:16:28.360 --> 0:16:33.240 how literal the term mosquito factory is. Yeah, and the 0:16:33.080 --> 0:16:36.280 these particular efforts we're gonna talk about first here. First 0:16:36.320 --> 0:16:39.160 of all, the there's one in Guando, China, and that's 0:16:39.200 --> 0:16:41.920 what the photos referred to. And there's another one in 0:16:41.960 --> 0:16:46.400 Australia as well. Yeah, and these are both utilizing a 0:16:46.880 --> 0:16:52.080 technique that involves the use of walt Bacchia bacteria. Yeah. 0:16:52.160 --> 0:16:54.920 So while Baccia its full name is I believe wal 0:16:55.000 --> 0:16:59.120 Baccia pipientis, which sounds cute, pipientis, it's like a hobbit 0:16:59.760 --> 0:17:03.720 uh uh Walbakia is a bacterium and it inhibits Zeka 0:17:03.920 --> 0:17:08.959 and other viruses by preventing the fertilization of mosquito eggs. 0:17:09.000 --> 0:17:11.960 So when you reapply it over time to multiple generations, 0:17:12.000 --> 0:17:15.800 it can kill off an entire species of mosquito. The 0:17:15.880 --> 0:17:20.359 percentage of mosquitoes carrying it subsequently increases, and outbreaks can 0:17:20.359 --> 0:17:23.840 then be contained and reduced. Wal Baccia. Now, if some 0:17:23.880 --> 0:17:26.200 of you out there are immediately you know, worried, Oh 0:17:26.200 --> 0:17:28.159 my god, we're just putting this thing out into the world. 0:17:28.200 --> 0:17:31.800 What is it, Well, don't worry just yet about walbaccia. 0:17:31.840 --> 0:17:35.800 It already occurs naturally in some mosquito species, but not 0:17:35.960 --> 0:17:37.920 in the adis a gypty that we're we've been talking 0:17:37.960 --> 0:17:40.879 about already that's responsible for spreading all these diseases, right, 0:17:40.920 --> 0:17:43.480 and it also does not pass on to humans, right 0:17:43.560 --> 0:17:47.200 it like can't. My understanding is it cannot physically fit 0:17:47.320 --> 0:17:50.960 through the probiscus. It's actually present and up to six 0:17:51.640 --> 0:17:56.000 of all different species of insects that exists around us already, 0:17:56.040 --> 0:17:58.679 and it's reportedly, like as you just said, safe for 0:17:58.760 --> 0:18:03.280 humans animals in the environment. Uh, they've actually conducted two 0:18:03.520 --> 0:18:07.760 independent risk assessments on wall Bacia and they found that 0:18:07.800 --> 0:18:11.720 it has negligible risk rating when it's released in mosquitoes. 0:18:13.119 --> 0:18:15.879 So that brings us to Guang Joe, China, which is 0:18:15.920 --> 0:18:18.879 where they're actually doing this now. Yeah, and uh and 0:18:18.920 --> 0:18:23.000 as well discussed they've they've been reporting some promising results. 0:18:23.840 --> 0:18:27.680 They're rearing and releasing these mosquitoes that are infected with wallbaccia. 0:18:27.960 --> 0:18:30.080 Uh and and really you've already touched on this, but 0:18:30.160 --> 0:18:32.760 the two key ideas here is that first, it renders 0:18:32.800 --> 0:18:36.680 the mosquitoes incapable of carrying a wide range of dangerous pathonges, 0:18:36.800 --> 0:18:40.000 including including zaga. And this is a quirk that mosquitoes 0:18:40.040 --> 0:18:42.919 pass on to their offspring. So the parents have wallbakia, 0:18:42.960 --> 0:18:45.600 they'll pass that on. But of course this also again 0:18:45.600 --> 0:18:49.080 plays into the overall population because when a male walbaci 0:18:49.160 --> 0:18:52.879 infected mosquito mates with an uninfected female, the resulting eggs 0:18:52.920 --> 0:18:56.560 don't hatch. It's only when both mates carry Wallbachia that 0:18:56.600 --> 0:18:58.560 the union results in a viable egg, and then that 0:18:58.640 --> 0:19:02.960 offspring has wallbakia. Is well. So it's it seems really 0:19:03.000 --> 0:19:06.640 almost kind of perfect, right because it's it's it's it's 0:19:06.760 --> 0:19:10.480 it's making the creature unable to carry the illness that 0:19:10.600 --> 0:19:14.800 is the problem, and it eliminates those the that that 0:19:15.320 --> 0:19:20.240 do not carry this disease inhibiting agent. Yeah, it's it's 0:19:20.080 --> 0:19:23.480 it seems almost too perfect. Um, which is you know, 0:19:23.600 --> 0:19:29.159 I mean my spider sense immediately, no pun intended, immediately 0:19:29.200 --> 0:19:31.399 goes off when I hear stuff like this, because I'm like, 0:19:31.400 --> 0:19:33.920 really like for messing with nature on this level where 0:19:33.960 --> 0:19:40.520 the repercussion is going to be Um, it's essentially mosquito eugenics. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Um. 0:19:40.560 --> 0:19:43.199 The factory in particular that we're talking about, quote unquote 0:19:43.240 --> 0:19:46.119 factory in China, it's based out of the sun Yat 0:19:46.320 --> 0:19:50.960 Sen University collaboration with Michigan State University. They have a 0:19:51.080 --> 0:19:55.040 joint Center of Vector Control for Tropical Diseases there and 0:19:55.119 --> 0:19:58.240 basically what they're doing is they're releasing this infected population 0:19:58.440 --> 0:20:02.439 of mosquitoes on a place called shaw Zi Island and 0:20:02.480 --> 0:20:06.320 they claim they've had a nine suppression rate of the 0:20:06.359 --> 0:20:13.000 population of the species ADUs albo pictus there. Otherwise, that 0:20:13.040 --> 0:20:16.240 one is known as the Asian tiger mosquito. That's the 0:20:16.240 --> 0:20:19.760 one that carries Zeka in China. My question is, and 0:20:19.800 --> 0:20:22.040 I didn't have time to look into this, and I 0:20:22.080 --> 0:20:23.920 didn't get a sense of it from the Atlantic article. 0:20:24.560 --> 0:20:27.960 But I'm wondering who lives on Shahzai Island, and in particular, 0:20:28.080 --> 0:20:31.640 like what's their risk both of Zeka and from these 0:20:31.680 --> 0:20:34.159 altered mosquitoes. Right, So there are a lot of pictures 0:20:34.160 --> 0:20:36.600 in the Atlantic article showing families like kind of hiding 0:20:36.640 --> 0:20:39.160 under mosquito nets and like dealing with their everyday life 0:20:39.160 --> 0:20:41.919 just staying away from mosquitoes as much as possible. But 0:20:42.000 --> 0:20:44.520 why is that the perfect place other than other than 0:20:44.560 --> 0:20:47.359 that's an island, right. I look around for an answer 0:20:47.359 --> 0:20:49.800 to this as well, and I didn't really get a 0:20:49.840 --> 0:20:53.440 good sense of it. I have been to Guangzhou and 0:20:53.480 --> 0:20:58.640 I have visited Shaman Island, which is um a little 0:20:58.680 --> 0:21:00.680 bit up river, I believe, from it, and I was 0:21:00.720 --> 0:21:02.040 looking at the map and trying to figure out how 0:21:02.080 --> 0:21:04.560 closely word of each other. But I guess the important 0:21:04.560 --> 0:21:07.400 thing to to keep in mind here is that, uh, 0:21:07.520 --> 0:21:12.240 both of these islands in particular are on the Jojang River, 0:21:13.080 --> 0:21:17.760 the Pearl River, which cuts through the gateway city, the 0:21:17.840 --> 0:21:21.600 Chinese gateway city of Guangzhoe, which has a population of 0:21:21.720 --> 0:21:26.679 thirteen point zero eight million people, So you compare that 0:21:26.760 --> 0:21:29.399 to the eight point fifty five million people in New 0:21:29.480 --> 0:21:32.000 York City, right, Yeah, that's and that's a veritable feeding 0:21:32.000 --> 0:21:34.199 ground for mosquitoes. Yeah, I mean it's a it's a 0:21:34.280 --> 0:21:38.000 staggering metropolis, quite a blood behink from mosquitoes, and you 0:21:38.040 --> 0:21:41.639 have this major waterway and all these additional waterways just 0:21:41.760 --> 0:21:45.359 running like veins through the whole thing. So it's a very, um, 0:21:45.640 --> 0:21:48.880 very wet city. Yeahs you could say. So that's kind 0:21:48.880 --> 0:21:51.919 of perfect for for what we're talking about, both for 0:21:52.080 --> 0:21:56.040 breeding the mosquitoes to battle these diseases, but also just 0:21:56.080 --> 0:21:59.000 for mosquitoes naturally. Um. The other thing that I was 0:21:59.040 --> 0:22:01.720 wondering by looking at this photo essay was that they 0:22:01.760 --> 0:22:04.080