WEBVTT - Mosquitoes vs. Humans - Battle for the Future 0:00:00.160 --> 0:00:07.240 Brought to you by Toyota. Let's go places. Welcome to 0:00:07.400 --> 0:00:15.200 Forward Thinking. Hey everybody, and welcome to Forward Thinking, the 0:00:15.280 --> 0:00:17.800 podcast that looks at the future and says, I love 0:00:17.840 --> 0:00:21.080 what you do, but I know that you're toxic. I'm 0:00:21.160 --> 0:00:24.479 Joe McCormick and I'm Lauren voc Obama. Jonathan Strickland is 0:00:24.640 --> 0:00:26.759 not with us today. He's at its c E S. 0:00:26.920 --> 0:00:29.880 So we are flying solo. Right. He is roaming the 0:00:29.920 --> 0:00:33.200 floors searching the world for the technology of the future, 0:00:33.560 --> 0:00:36.360 to bring that knowledge to you and tell you how 0:00:36.400 --> 0:00:38.920 it's gonna work. So you might have already seen Jonathan 0:00:38.960 --> 0:00:41.159 and his first video from c E S. There is 0:00:41.200 --> 0:00:44.319 going to be another one next week. Um. But so 0:00:44.400 --> 0:00:46.479 while he's out of town, Lauren and I figured we 0:00:46.520 --> 0:00:50.480 would talk about some topics that interested us. Yeah, and 0:00:50.680 --> 0:00:55.840 so we landed immediately upon mosquitoes, right, because they're awesome, 0:00:56.960 --> 0:01:01.600 not because they're horrible. They're horrible, they're useless. So I 0:01:01.720 --> 0:01:04.360 love nature, and I love all the critters of the 0:01:04.400 --> 0:01:07.600 forest and all of the species that exist on this 0:01:07.640 --> 0:01:11.520 wonderful planet. But I think maybe I could make an 0:01:11.520 --> 0:01:15.200 exception and just put aside by nature protecting attitude and 0:01:15.240 --> 0:01:21.319 say mosquitoes suck. Literally, they're horrible, and I want to 0:01:21.360 --> 0:01:23.800 destroy them. And I'm not even sure if I should 0:01:23.800 --> 0:01:26.800 feel bad about that. Yeah, usually we're pretty we're pretty 0:01:26.840 --> 0:01:29.479 tree huggy, circle of life kind of people around here. 0:01:29.560 --> 0:01:32.280 But I think that, yes, this is one example of 0:01:32.319 --> 0:01:35.800 which we just kind of go, well, you know, they 0:01:35.840 --> 0:01:42.319 caused some six hundred and twenties seven thousand deaths from malaria, 0:01:42.720 --> 0:01:46.320 and so maybe they're just not good for anything. I 0:01:46.360 --> 0:01:49.400 think it's a conclusion at the end of that. Well, okay, 0:01:49.400 --> 0:01:51.360 so maybe we shouldn't go so far as to say 0:01:51.400 --> 0:01:54.680 we'll just completely eliminate mosquitoes, but it is fair to 0:01:54.720 --> 0:01:57.560 say we are in a war with mosquitoes. We are 0:01:57.880 --> 0:02:00.880 fighting a battle for our lives, lives for the lives 0:02:00.920 --> 0:02:04.040 of many human beings who are put greatly at risk 0:02:04.160 --> 0:02:08.200 by the diseases that mosquitoes spread um and of course 0:02:08.280 --> 0:02:11.800 malaria is the chief among those. So what are the 0:02:11.880 --> 0:02:14.320 numbers on this? How many people are are put at 0:02:14.400 --> 0:02:16.880 risk by malaria? And there's some two hundred and seven 0:02:16.919 --> 0:02:21.600 million cases worldwide, and in anyway, these are the newest 0:02:21.639 --> 0:02:24.440 numbers that we've got from the World Health Organization WHO 0:02:24.480 --> 0:02:29.360 in and you know, the mortality rates from the disease 0:02:29.400 --> 0:02:32.079 have have fallen some forty five since the year two 0:02:32.120 --> 0:02:34.680 thousand due to a whole bunch of new technologies that 0:02:34.720 --> 0:02:37.400 have come out, which which is fabulous, but there's still that, 0:02:37.440 --> 0:02:40.080 I mean, there's still hundreds of thousands of people dying 0:02:40.080 --> 0:02:42.800 of this disease every year. And and that's you know, 0:02:43.120 --> 0:02:45.400 you've also got West Nile virus, lots of other things 0:02:45.400 --> 0:02:48.400 that skit is spread. But okay, so what is malaria? 0:02:48.720 --> 0:02:54.000 Malaria is a disease caused by parasites from the genus Plasmodium. Right. 0:02:54.040 --> 0:02:58.720 It's not just a normal bacteria or virus, is it right? Right? Um? 0:02:58.760 --> 0:03:03.600 And only five of these specific uh species of Plasmodium 0:03:03.680 --> 0:03:08.240 parasites have been known to cosmolarian humans. They different strains 0:03:08.240 --> 0:03:11.040 cosmlarian and other animals as well. One is a new 0:03:11.080 --> 0:03:14.760 recent crossover from monkeys, which is pretty exciting. These parasites 0:03:14.800 --> 0:03:18.840 are spread through the bites of infected mosquitoes. Yeah, apparently 0:03:19.280 --> 0:03:22.760 all of the species of mosquito that transmit the malaria 0:03:22.800 --> 0:03:26.720 parasite are found within the genus and awfulies And that's 0:03:26.720 --> 0:03:30.480 a name which comes from the Greek which literally means useless, 0:03:30.600 --> 0:03:35.040 without advantage, or good for nothing. So it's like literally 0:03:35.120 --> 0:03:39.520 part of their very etymological identity that they must be destroyed. 0:03:39.840 --> 0:03:43.120 They're good for nothing, I mean they're they're probably good 0:03:43.160 --> 0:03:48.400 for feeding some species of birds or spiders. Perhaps. Again 0:03:48.440 --> 0:03:52.640 I'm not I'm not advocating complete extermination of the genus. 0:03:53.440 --> 0:03:57.200 But again, this is war. It is it is and Okay, 0:03:57.200 --> 0:03:59.360 So so rates of infection depend on a whole bunch 0:03:59.360 --> 0:04:01.960 of different things things. Yeah, it's it's from the species 0:04:02.000 --> 0:04:05.600 of mosquitoes, specific lifespan um. It's it's taste for human 0:04:05.640 --> 0:04:10.480 blood because some mosquitoes are more bloodthirsty than others. Um Uh. 0:04:10.760 --> 0:04:13.760 Climate and weather conditions like rainfall, temperature, and humidity can 0:04:13.800 --> 0:04:17.160 affect this and also um different populations can have different immunity. 0:04:17.200 --> 0:04:20.800 Over the years of exposure to small amounts of this parasite, 0:04:21.000 --> 0:04:23.640 you can build up an immunity. Um. And so when 0:04:23.839 --> 0:04:26.440 the climate changes earlier I'm sorry, when the weather changes 0:04:26.480 --> 0:04:29.559 in the climate slowly kind of fills stuff in. Different 0:04:29.600 --> 0:04:32.919 populations of humans that are perhaps less immune to the 0:04:32.960 --> 0:04:36.480 disease can can catch it, and it can run pretty rampant. Yeah, 0:04:36.480 --> 0:04:39.280 and it tends to come in sort of like boom 0:04:39.320 --> 0:04:42.320 and fade cycles, right like during the rainy seasons and 0:04:42.320 --> 0:04:46.680 the warm seasons, malaria booms exactly. Yeah, Um. And the 0:04:47.000 --> 0:04:49.760 basic way that it works is that, UM, it's a 0:04:49.800 --> 0:04:52.159 single celled parasite and it gets into your blood cells 0:04:52.160 --> 0:04:54.680 and reproduces until it kills the cell, which then releases 0:04:54.720 --> 0:04:58.240 a whole bunch of toxins and more parasites and repeats 0:04:58.240 --> 0:05:01.520 the process. So um, you know, eventually, like in with 0:05:01.560 --> 0:05:03.680 short term it will cause kind of flu like symptoms, 0:05:03.760 --> 0:05:06.240 but in the long term it can cause organ failures, 0:05:06.279 --> 0:05:10.520 brain problems, cardiovascular problems, pulmonary problems, you know, just basically 0:05:10.520 --> 0:05:13.000 shut you down. Okay, So is there a way to 0:05:13.160 --> 0:05:16.720 deal with the disease itself? Like if we just know 0:05:16.800 --> 0:05:22.559 that mosquitoes are here to stay, is there a malaria vaccine? Well, okay, UM. 0:05:22.720 --> 0:05:26.320 Vaccines are tricky here because the parasite changes a bunch 0:05:26.360 --> 0:05:28.719 of it grows so fast in your bloodstream that that 0:05:28.760 --> 0:05:32.240 it's changing and mutating and building up drug resistance pretty quickly. 0:05:32.320 --> 0:05:37.120 So there's no current vaccine that's effective. One isn't testing UM. 0:05:37.120 --> 0:05:40.240 It's it's against the most common and deadly of those parasites, 0:05:40.320 --> 0:05:44.080 p falciparum or falciparum. I'm not sure. My latin is 0:05:44.120 --> 0:05:46.880 really rusty, and and it's it's currently being administered as 0:05:46.920 --> 0:05:49.960 part of a research trial in Africa. Results aren't expected 0:05:50.040 --> 0:05:54.039 until late and uh for possible use, you know, if 0:05:54.080 --> 0:05:58.120 it seems legit in starting in sometime, but you know, 0:05:58.240 --> 0:06:00.200 it's it's still in testing. People are hoping thing that 0:06:00.240 --> 0:06:02.600 this one is going to work out. It's tricky because 0:06:02.760 --> 0:06:06.400 the genomes of both the parasite and of mosquitoes, of 0:06:06.440 --> 0:06:08.719 the mosquitoes that carry it have been mapped. But you 0:06:08.760 --> 0:06:11.159 know that's as we've talked about before on the show, 0:06:11.360 --> 0:06:15.120 a genome is a whole lot of information to pour over. Okay, 0:06:15.120 --> 0:06:17.240 so you can't really vaccinate it yet, what do they 0:06:17.279 --> 0:06:19.920 do to treat it? The best treatment for the disease 0:06:20.040 --> 0:06:23.599 right now is uh it's called art missenan based combination 0:06:23.760 --> 0:06:26.240 therapy or a CT, which acts kind of like a 0:06:26.360 --> 0:06:29.279 like a punch kick combo of of drugs that helps 0:06:29.360 --> 0:06:32.920 prevent the parasite from developing resistance. UM, but it can 0:06:33.040 --> 0:06:35.320 still the pears I can still develop resistance to this 0:06:35.360 --> 0:06:38.800 stuff over time. And also it's pretty expensive, so it 0:06:38.920 --> 0:06:43.080 sounds like the disease itself is pretty hardy and difficult 0:06:43.160 --> 0:06:45.800 to fight, So maybe the best thing to do in 0:06:45.880 --> 0:06:48.680 this case would be something that's called vector control. And 0:06:48.800 --> 0:06:52.160 this is when there are diseases that are zoonotic, they're 0:06:53.080 --> 0:06:56.520 fed to us through an animal carrier, where you attack 0:06:56.640 --> 0:07:00.280 the animal carrier rather than the disease itself. So if 0:07:00.320 --> 0:07:02.839 it's a disease spread by rats, you'd try to control 0:07:02.920 --> 0:07:06.280 the rat population rather than dealing with the disease. In 0:07:06.400 --> 0:07:09.080 this case, it's spread by mosquitoes. So what do you do? 0:07:09.520 --> 0:07:12.520 Go to war with mosquitoes, like I've been saying, all right, 0:07:12.680 --> 0:07:15.120 and this is tricky too, because only about one percent 0:07:15.200 --> 0:07:19.480 of the mosquito population is capable of carrying these parasites 0:07:19.640 --> 0:07:22.400 UM and mosquitoes are pretty sturdy. They've been around for 0:07:22.880 --> 0:07:27.160 like over three hundred million years UM. And furthermore, only 0:07:27.440 --> 0:07:30.080 female mosquitoes are the ones that spread this disease. So 0:07:30.640 --> 0:07:34.040 you have to get really tough and specific against this 0:07:34.120 --> 0:07:36.240 mosquito problem. It's it's not you know, you can't just 0:07:36.320 --> 0:07:39.200 like go knock on their door at night and take 0:07:39.280 --> 0:07:44.400 them to mosquito jail, mosquito chaniel. I'm trying to picture 0:07:44.520 --> 0:07:49.760 that it's made of legos, I don't know clearly, carbon 0:07:49.800 --> 0:07:52.080 nano tubes. I'm not sure. Okay, Well, I do know 0:07:52.200 --> 0:07:54.320 that we have a bunch of different ways of trying 0:07:54.400 --> 0:07:58.760 to fight and control mosquito infection. UM and I think 0:07:58.840 --> 0:08:03.120 the most low tech and the most widespread is probably 0:08:03.240 --> 0:08:06.040 mosquito nets. Right, Yeah, as far as I can tell, 0:08:06.080 --> 0:08:09.320 they've been around for a good couple hundred years, possibly 0:08:09.440 --> 0:08:12.040 thousands of years, although I'm not sure. I'm not sure 0:08:12.040 --> 0:08:15.120 about the veracity of that one. UM. And in the 0:08:15.200 --> 0:08:18.200 eighties or so, we started treating mosquito nets with pesticides, 0:08:18.800 --> 0:08:21.280 which is pretty effective. I mean, I mean mosquito nets 0:08:21.360 --> 0:08:25.680 themselves can reduce the cases of malaria in a population 0:08:25.760 --> 0:08:30.000 by about forty and treated nets by something like so 0:08:30.520 --> 0:08:32.840 that's awesome. I mean, you know that's but that's still 0:08:32.920 --> 0:08:36.680 leaving hundreds of thousands of people susceptible. Yeah, and I'd 0:08:36.720 --> 0:08:38.920 imagine the mosquito net. I mean, that's something you can 0:08:39.040 --> 0:08:42.319 sleep over, but you can't, like live inside it. I 0:08:42.360 --> 0:08:44.400 mean you've got to get up and go do your things. 0:08:44.440 --> 0:08:46.280 I mean you could, I guess if you made yourself 0:08:46.320 --> 0:08:49.000 a suit of mosquito netting, but that wouldn't really be 0:08:49.120 --> 0:08:53.800 effective impractical, yes, um so so, but I was talking 0:08:53.840 --> 0:08:58.920 about UM treating the nets with insecticides. Yeah, yeah, we've 0:08:58.920 --> 0:09:01.319 got lots of poison. Humans are pretty good at creating 0:09:01.360 --> 0:09:04.000 place and as it turns out, yeah, okay. So there's 0:09:04.080 --> 0:09:07.040 one major example that'd be d d T SO d 0:09:07.160 --> 0:09:10.000 d T S and insecticide that has been highly effective 0:09:10.040 --> 0:09:14.240 at eliminating disease carrying mosquito populations before um as in 0:09:14.320 --> 0:09:16.920 the United States after World War Two. UH. This is 0:09:16.920 --> 0:09:20.880 actually direct quote from the CDC's history on this. The 0:09:21.080 --> 0:09:26.120 National Malaria Eradication Program UH. Let skip a bit consisted 0:09:26.200 --> 0:09:29.880 primarily of d d T application to the interior surfaces 0:09:29.960 --> 0:09:33.600 of rural homes or entire premises in counties for malaria 0:09:33.720 --> 0:09:36.600 was reported to have been prevalent in recent years. UH 0:09:36.720 --> 0:09:39.040 and so by the end of nineteen nine, more than 0:09:39.480 --> 0:09:42.680 four point six million house spray applications have been made. 0:09:43.440 --> 0:09:47.079 It also included drainage, removal of mosquito breeding sites, and 0:09:47.520 --> 0:09:52.679 UH spraying from aircraft of insecticides. So basically, within a 0:09:52.800 --> 0:09:56.920 few years the country was declared malaria free by the 0:09:57.040 --> 0:10:00.280 use of d DT. So it's effective, why not just 0:10:00.360 --> 0:10:04.040 spray the entire world with d d T problem solved. Right, Well, 0:10:04.520 --> 0:10:08.640 that problem is solved, however, Yeah, it's d d T. 0:10:09.000 --> 0:10:11.280 You've probably heard of d d T before, maybe in 0:10:11.360 --> 0:10:14.800 conjunction with a book called Silent Spring. D d T 0:10:15.160 --> 0:10:19.480 was the subject of controversy and ensuing decades and the 0:10:19.520 --> 0:10:23.199 sixties and seventies, and it was eventually banned, possibly with 0:10:23.400 --> 0:10:26.719 very good reason. Uh. It's toxic to the environment in 0:10:27.200 --> 0:10:30.400 all kinds of ways. Uh. And it's got nasty, persistent 0:10:30.520 --> 0:10:34.360 effects throughout the biosphere. So it's lipophili becaus I believe 0:10:34.400 --> 0:10:37.199 the word it. It bonds in a friendly way with 0:10:37.440 --> 0:10:41.199 fat cells, so it stays in organic tissue for a 0:10:41.280 --> 0:10:45.360 long time. Yeah. Um. And then there there are questions 0:10:45.400 --> 0:10:49.160 about its toxicity to humans. It's been suggested with links 0:10:49.240 --> 0:10:52.240 to various diseases and humans, though I think it has 0:10:52.320 --> 0:10:55.840 not necessarily been proven as a carcinogen. And then finally, 0:10:55.880 --> 0:10:59.400 you've got the problem of insect resistance. Right. You use 0:10:59.440 --> 0:11:02.160 a poison long enough on insect populations is going to 0:11:02.280 --> 0:11:04.760 kill a lot of them. But in the same problem 0:11:04.880 --> 0:11:07.840 we have with the overuse of antibiotics, if you continue 0:11:08.000 --> 0:11:11.200 using it, you're going to get some resistant insects. You'll 0:11:11.240 --> 0:11:14.559 eventually select for insects that are resistant. Right now, you 0:11:14.679 --> 0:11:17.439 have super insects who aren't harmed by d d T, 0:11:17.600 --> 0:11:20.599 and you've basically destroyed your environment by spraying it with 0:11:20.960 --> 0:11:23.679 poison that is maybe killing you. And then you'll have 0:11:24.040 --> 0:11:28.559 mosquito population surge back later, right. Yeah, So, and this 0:11:28.720 --> 0:11:30.880 is the problem with with all insect sides. Really when 0:11:30.920 --> 0:11:33.560 you get down to it, um, you know, you also 0:11:33.640 --> 0:11:37.920 get UM D D E T, which is a little 0:11:37.960 --> 0:11:41.240 bit safer than d d T, but also i'd imagine 0:11:41.280 --> 0:11:44.240 a good bit safe. I think most things are good 0:11:44.280 --> 0:11:46.439 but safer than d d T UM. But but it's 0:11:46.440 --> 0:11:50.199 still slightly toxic to h to lots of wildlife, more 0:11:50.280 --> 0:11:53.920 so non mammals than mammals. But um, you know, even 0:11:53.960 --> 0:11:57.000 though it's been classified as safe to use on humans 0:11:57.040 --> 0:12:00.200 in accordance with the district, the instructions on on any 0:12:00.559 --> 0:12:03.280 package labeling that you may find, it can still be 0:12:03.440 --> 0:12:06.199 slightly toxic to us as well if it's used improperly. 0:12:08.000 --> 0:12:10.920 So I was reading somewhere about that there's like a 0:12:11.520 --> 0:12:15.000 future DEET, like a hyperdet that could be coming to 0:12:15.080 --> 0:12:18.480 the market that's way more effective. Well, so the whole. 0:12:18.960 --> 0:12:20.640 One of the things, one of the weird things about 0:12:20.679 --> 0:12:23.560 DEET is that we're still not sure exactly how it works. Um. 0:12:24.160 --> 0:12:27.840 It either confuses mosquito sense of smell or it smells 0:12:27.920 --> 0:12:30.520 really yucky to them. So it's it's not like d 0:12:30.640 --> 0:12:32.920 d T. It's not like a poison. It's not a poison. No, 0:12:32.960 --> 0:12:35.800 it's it's a repellent. UM and and there are other 0:12:35.920 --> 0:12:39.200 repellents that are in development right now. UM. One really 0:12:39.280 --> 0:12:42.959 promising one is called and this is snappy vu A 0:12:43.160 --> 0:12:47.319 A one that stands for the Vanderbilt University um allosteric 0:12:47.600 --> 0:12:51.360 agonist number one. And basically what this does is is 0:12:51.480 --> 0:12:54.920 overload mosquito sense of smell, thus preventing them from tracking 0:12:55.000 --> 0:13:00.240 down tasty, tasty human blood. Sounds like an agonist, right, Um. 0:13:01.760 --> 0:13:04.520 And it's a it's a molecule that triggers a mosquito's 0:13:04.640 --> 0:13:07.679 olfactory nerves switchboard. Um, it's a it's a little thing 0:13:07.720 --> 0:13:10.880 called the called the orco, and the ORCO transmits signals 0:13:10.960 --> 0:13:14.640 from the bugs odorant receptors to its brain, letting it 0:13:14.760 --> 0:13:17.040 know what it's smelling. Um. But but when you trigger 0:13:17.120 --> 0:13:20.120 the whole switchboard at once, it causes a sensory overload. 0:13:20.160 --> 0:13:24.079 It's a basically a thing that smells like everything simultaneously, 0:13:24.559 --> 0:13:28.040 which if you think about that, that's terrible Like that, 0:13:29.240 --> 0:13:31.319 I would like no one to ever you know, not 0:13:31.440 --> 0:13:34.160 not that we've got similar switchboards and humans, but at 0:13:34.160 --> 0:13:37.520 any rate, Um, yeah, it's currently in testing, but don't 0:13:37.520 --> 0:13:39.880 they say that in trials it's like a thousand times 0:13:39.960 --> 0:13:42.760 more effective than deet or something like yeah, yeah, some 0:13:42.960 --> 0:13:44.880 some huge amount. I don't have the number right in 0:13:44.920 --> 0:13:47.520 front of me, but um, but really quite effective and 0:13:47.720 --> 0:13:52.120 and also probably you know, I'm making up a number here, essentially, 0:13:52.160 --> 0:13:54.439 but millions of times more effective than, for example, is 0:13:54.480 --> 0:13:59.160 cit Tranella candle um, which really only confuses a particular 0:13:59.240 --> 0:14:02.800 odor recept or and not the whole switchboard. Okay, um, 0:14:03.000 --> 0:14:05.079 what about this kite patch I was hearing about? Is 0:14:05.160 --> 0:14:07.920 that another chemical solution? Yeah, this is a this is 0:14:07.960 --> 0:14:11.319 a similar repellent sort of thing. Um that. This was 0:14:11.559 --> 0:14:16.160 a crowdfunded anti mosquito patch called kite. It just just 0:14:16.360 --> 0:14:20.880 in fall of met like seven dtent of its goal 0:14:20.960 --> 0:14:23.640 on Indigo Go, which is wonderful. They raised over five 0:14:23.720 --> 0:14:27.240 hundred and fifty thousand dollars um and uh, okay, so, 0:14:27.360 --> 0:14:29.760 so one of the other ways that mosquitoes detect humans 0:14:29.880 --> 0:14:32.720 is with carbon dioxide receptors. You know, we we exhale 0:14:32.760 --> 0:14:35.440 the stuff and so they can they've learned how to 0:14:35.520 --> 0:14:39.200 smell it. And the chemicals on this patch mess with mosquitoes. 0:14:39.240 --> 0:14:43.440 Carbon dioxide sent receptors in um. Uh, those in particular, 0:14:43.560 --> 0:14:46.920 and maybe there are other odor receptors in general. The 0:14:47.080 --> 0:14:50.360 kite patch makers have up to this point been understandably 0:14:50.600 --> 0:14:53.640 a little bit fuzzy wuzzy on the on the details 0:14:53.680 --> 0:14:56.680 of it, since it's still in development. But um, but 0:14:57.520 --> 0:15:00.520 in general, um, someone wearing the kind of thing on 0:15:00.560 --> 0:15:03.000 their clothing should be invisible to the bugs for up 0:15:03.040 --> 0:15:05.800 to forty eight hours. Okay, so the bug, the bug 0:15:05.920 --> 0:15:08.240 can't smell your breath. But at the same time, it's 0:15:08.320 --> 0:15:12.280 not using like a toxic chemical to confuse it, right exactly, 0:15:12.480 --> 0:15:15.400 it should be non toxic. It's pretty inexpensive and um. 0:15:15.760 --> 0:15:17.560 So it's currently with all of this money that they 0:15:17.680 --> 0:15:21.160 grabbed from Indigo go in testing in Uganda. So uh, 0:15:21.600 --> 0:15:23.720 we're going to see how that goes. Cool. Well, good 0:15:23.800 --> 0:15:26.200 luck to them. So that sounds like a good future 0:15:26.240 --> 0:15:28.960 avenue there. Yes, Well, I want to talk about some 0:15:29.080 --> 0:15:31.240 more things that are currently being used and might be 0:15:31.360 --> 0:15:34.240 used in the future. I want to talk about traps. Traps. 0:15:34.360 --> 0:15:36.120 Did you ever play that game when you're kid? The 0:15:36.200 --> 0:15:39.360 board game, the mouse trap game? Yeah, where I'm not 0:15:39.440 --> 0:15:41.480 sure if it was actually a game as much as 0:15:41.520 --> 0:15:44.040 it was just like a thing to set up and 0:15:44.520 --> 0:15:46.880 look at. Well, you have to move around the board 0:15:46.920 --> 0:15:50.920 and hit certain spaces in order to set the pieces up, supposedly, 0:15:51.000 --> 0:15:52.400 but I'm not sure that I ever played that way. 0:15:52.400 --> 0:15:54.840 I think that I just constructed the Rube Goldbergesque machine 0:15:54.880 --> 0:15:57.120 and did it well. I never even played the game. 0:15:57.200 --> 0:15:59.760 I just saw the commercial and wanted it really bad 0:15:59.800 --> 0:16:03.400 because of the traps. It's good. Traps are very satisfying 0:16:03.480 --> 0:16:06.240 if you're trying to eliminate pests, that there's sort of 0:16:06.280 --> 0:16:10.160 this deep down natural human urge to trap things you 0:16:10.240 --> 0:16:13.040 don't want near you and slay them. Slay them. Yeah, 0:16:13.160 --> 0:16:16.560 like slaying mosquitoes. That's much more fun than slaying mice, 0:16:16.640 --> 0:16:19.600 which is kind of sad um. Yes, mice are cute. 0:16:19.720 --> 0:16:23.520 I had a pet mouse once. Never had a pet mosquito, 0:16:23.640 --> 0:16:27.880 because mosquitoes are attracted to heat, carbon dioxide, stinky human smell. 0:16:28.240 --> 0:16:30.520 If we know what they're attracted to. Seems like we 0:16:30.640 --> 0:16:33.160 might be able to make traps where we can lure 0:16:33.240 --> 0:16:35.640 them in, put them in a bag, send them off 0:16:35.720 --> 0:16:40.040 somewhere bad, and we're done. Send them to a mosquito jail. Yeah. Right. 0:16:40.160 --> 0:16:44.120 So here's one example, just a consumer mosquito trap that 0:16:44.160 --> 0:16:45.960 you can go on the internet and buy. This is 0:16:46.000 --> 0:16:49.040 what it's called the mosquito magnet, and a lot of 0:16:49.080 --> 0:16:51.800 traps work like this. Basically, they attract mosquitoes with a 0:16:51.880 --> 0:16:54.520 combination of c O two and water vapor and that's 0:16:54.560 --> 0:16:59.080 created by burning a little flame from a pro propane tank. Okay, 0:16:59.120 --> 0:17:01.480 so so you've got so you've got the heat, you've 0:17:01.520 --> 0:17:04.960 got the CEO two uh yeah, and the water vapor 0:17:05.040 --> 0:17:07.760 two and so it simulates the human breath that you 0:17:07.760 --> 0:17:10.399 were talking about, just like what they're attracted to. The 0:17:11.400 --> 0:17:15.479 kite patch messes up and then when it attracts the insects. Uh, 0:17:15.600 --> 0:17:18.920 these kinds of traps suck the insects up into a 0:17:19.000 --> 0:17:22.600 collector device with an electric fan or a vacuum or 0:17:22.680 --> 0:17:25.880 something like that. So it's it's doing the breath, it's 0:17:25.920 --> 0:17:29.640 getting them in there. Um. The video for this particular 0:17:29.720 --> 0:17:32.920 product is kind of hilarious because some guy keeps telling 0:17:32.960 --> 0:17:35.960 you to join his family. Yeah, that the announcer, and 0:17:36.040 --> 0:17:40.920 it is very enthusiastic. Uh, and I recommend it. So 0:17:41.119 --> 0:17:44.760 the machine looks more expensive than I can afford, but 0:17:44.920 --> 0:17:48.280 if I could afford it, it would be really cool. Um. Uh, 0:17:48.480 --> 0:17:50.880 just get rid of all those those skeeters. Bye bye. 0:17:51.320 --> 0:17:53.800 Skeeters is the scientific term, by the way, Yes, here 0:17:53.840 --> 0:17:57.600 in the South it is right science South science. Um. 0:17:58.160 --> 0:18:00.840 But is there a better way? I wonder is there 0:18:00.880 --> 0:18:04.200 anything that's more attractive to them than this combination of 0:18:04.280 --> 0:18:06.879 CEO two and water vapor? Something that that like is 0:18:07.000 --> 0:18:11.200 just a really distracting smell that they would love. And 0:18:11.280 --> 0:18:13.439 if you could just put some of the smell away 0:18:13.480 --> 0:18:17.359 from where the people are, would draw all the mosquitoes away. Okay, 0:18:17.440 --> 0:18:20.760 So I I heard on the internet that, um that 0:18:20.920 --> 0:18:27.960 mosquitoes really like cheese, like stinky, stinky, stinky cheese. Yeah, okay, 0:18:28.040 --> 0:18:30.480 So the question is what do you what if you 0:18:30.520 --> 0:18:33.080 could create a diversion for mosquitoes that would draw them 0:18:33.080 --> 0:18:35.159 away from humans and scientists have been thinking about this 0:18:35.240 --> 0:18:39.040 for a while. In the nine nineties, of researcher named 0:18:39.160 --> 0:18:42.800 Barton Knoles figured out that Hey, it looks like mosquitoes 0:18:43.000 --> 0:18:46.520 love limburger cheese just as much as they like the 0:18:46.640 --> 0:18:49.639 human smell. Um, And this could actually lead to improve 0:18:49.760 --> 0:18:52.639 mosquito traps, drawing the insects away from the humans with 0:18:52.760 --> 0:18:56.359 irresistible piles of cheesy bait. Um. So you could just 0:18:56.520 --> 0:18:59.880 leave piles of cheese in the jungle somewhere and say 0:19:00.119 --> 0:19:04.159 the world right. Yeah, well maybe not quite, but it 0:19:04.320 --> 0:19:06.040 but it was a step in the right direction. The 0:19:06.160 --> 0:19:09.080 research has been considered useful, even if it's not like 0:19:09.359 --> 0:19:12.440 the solution to the world mosquito problem. The paper was 0:19:12.520 --> 0:19:16.520 called on Human Odor, Malaria, Mosquitoes and Limburger Cheese, published 0:19:16.560 --> 0:19:19.440 in nine and I think Noel's eventually won an ig 0:19:19.520 --> 0:19:23.040 Nobel Prize for his research. Um, but so what other 0:19:23.119 --> 0:19:28.600 smells do? They love stinky feet, They love stink in 0:19:28.680 --> 0:19:32.680 whatever form. So malaria infected mosquitoes. If you put like 0:19:32.840 --> 0:19:36.520 a nasty stocking that you've been wearing for about forty 0:19:36.600 --> 0:19:40.560 eight hours in a jar, the mosquitoes will flock to it. 0:19:40.920 --> 0:19:45.520 They love it. No, no, you said malaria infested mosquitoes specifically, right, 0:19:45.720 --> 0:19:49.200 that that's actually what this next study is. One that's 0:19:49.200 --> 0:19:54.359 called malaria infected mosquitoes expressed enhanced attraction to human odor, 0:19:54.440 --> 0:19:58.480 and that was actually published just last year in almost 0:19:58.520 --> 0:20:02.440 said this year. Okay, but what it found is that 0:20:02.600 --> 0:20:07.800 malaria infected mosquitoes, in particular above regular mosquitoes are three 0:20:08.040 --> 0:20:14.560 times more attracted to stinky foot odors than uninfected mosquitoes are. Wow. Okay. So, 0:20:14.720 --> 0:20:19.240 so what you're basically saying is that that the for somehow, 0:20:19.440 --> 0:20:23.400 this this uh, this parasitic infection is driving the mosquitoes 0:20:23.440 --> 0:20:26.160 to be more attracted to humans than they otherwise would 0:20:26.160 --> 0:20:29.359 be right, And the important thing about this research is 0:20:29.480 --> 0:20:32.080 it actually has two reasons it's really important. One is 0:20:32.160 --> 0:20:35.119 that it might help us better understand how to create 0:20:35.320 --> 0:20:37.920 lures for these mosquitoes to draw them off the trail 0:20:38.040 --> 0:20:41.240 or invite them into traps. But it also is helping 0:20:41.320 --> 0:20:44.879 us understand the behavior of the parasite itself. So we 0:20:44.960 --> 0:20:48.120 don't just have to understand the mosquito, but we understand 0:20:48.200 --> 0:20:52.119 how the malaria parasite controls the mosquito's behavior. And the 0:20:52.160 --> 0:20:54.960 more we know about that, the better we are fighting this, 0:20:55.320 --> 0:20:59.479 especially in terms of vector control. So the question comes up, 0:20:59.760 --> 0:21:05.159 why it's better limburger cheese or stinky socks. Um. James Logan, 0:21:05.160 --> 0:21:07.320 who is one of the authors of the Stinky Feet paper, 0:21:07.480 --> 0:21:09.920 was quoted in an interview with the Huffington Post and 0:21:10.000 --> 0:21:13.600 he said this, Uh, mosquitoes aren't attracted to cheese because 0:21:13.720 --> 0:21:16.200 they've evolved to know the difference. So you have to 0:21:16.240 --> 0:21:18.920 get the mixture of the ratios and concentrations of those 0:21:19.000 --> 0:21:23.040 chemicals exactly right. Otherwise the mosquito won't think it's a human. 0:21:23.119 --> 0:21:26.000 So he's coming down and saying stinky socks are a 0:21:26.119 --> 0:21:30.320 better bait than Limburger cheese. That's that's slightly disappointing to me, 0:21:30.400 --> 0:21:33.640 because I was envisioning this, this gorgeous future where where 0:21:33.680 --> 0:21:37.080 all the cities are made of cheese, that the American 0:21:37.160 --> 0:21:40.400 tail had it right all along, and the streets will 0:21:40.400 --> 0:21:43.400 be paved. I see a flaw in your vision there, 0:21:43.440 --> 0:21:45.480 because you wouldn't want the cities made of cheese. That 0:21:45.480 --> 0:21:47.399 would just draw all the mosquitoes to it. What you 0:21:47.560 --> 0:21:49.760 want is to find a place where nobody wanted to 0:21:49.840 --> 0:21:52.800 live and put all of the cheese there. Joe, I 0:21:52.880 --> 0:21:56.200 really appreciate that that is your problem with my logic here, Okay, 0:21:57.000 --> 0:21:59.119 But it turns out there's another flaw, which is we 0:21:59.119 --> 0:22:01.720 shouldn't put the ease out there. We should put huge 0:22:01.800 --> 0:22:04.760 piles of stinky socks out there right right, Uh, faux 0:22:04.880 --> 0:22:08.160 cities made of stinky socks. Yes, Or an even better 0:22:08.240 --> 0:22:10.600 alternative would be as if we could create a really 0:22:10.840 --> 0:22:14.760 cheap synthetic version of the stinky sock smell. And that's 0:22:14.800 --> 0:22:16.800 one of the things that might come out of this 0:22:17.000 --> 0:22:19.560 research in the future, is that we can make better 0:22:19.680 --> 0:22:24.080 mosquito bait, thus more attractive mosquito traps, get more of 0:22:24.080 --> 0:22:26.600 those suckers in there, and take them away from people 0:22:26.680 --> 0:22:29.720 so they don't infect them. Right and hypothetically, especially since 0:22:29.760 --> 0:22:34.080 you're putting these stinky sock generating machines, you know, not 0:22:34.840 --> 0:22:37.520 very near to human populations. You're you're you're not you're 0:22:37.560 --> 0:22:40.360 not poisoning anything. I mean, oh well, I mean yeah, 0:22:40.600 --> 0:22:43.200 so you're not using a poison at all, so that 0:22:43.440 --> 0:22:46.200 that wouldn't harm other wildlife and it wouldn't lead to 0:22:46.280 --> 0:22:49.840