Speaker 1: Welcome to Semester two perfect.
Speaker 2: I'm t T and I'm Zachiah and from Spotify Studios.
Speaker 1: This is Dope Labs. Summer's coming to a close. I
Speaker 1: can't believe it. I feel like this whole year has
Speaker 1: been like, yeah, it.
Speaker 2: Was January, then I took a nap, and now it's September.
Speaker 1: I just remember we were together and I was like,
Speaker 1: it's so hot. I feel like everything is sticking to
Speaker 1: everything else. We always complain when it's so hot in summer.
Speaker 1: But then the other day I was like, falls back,
Speaker 1: and we started looking for our parkas yes, and already
Speaker 1: started complaining because there's a little yeah one day where
Speaker 1: it was a little bit chili and then everybody was like,
Speaker 1: oh uh uh, I thought chili, we mean below eighty
Speaker 1: degrees with no humidity, and everybody was pissed. Yes, we're
Speaker 1: always complaining. It's like it's too hot. We're complaining when
Speaker 1: it's too hot, then we complain when it's too cold.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna miss summer.
Speaker 2: I'm a miss summer, but you know, I really cannot
Speaker 2: stand mosquitoes, so that's something I'm not gonna miss.
Speaker 1: I love you, Summer, but not your friend.
Speaker 2: The mosquito right, because with summer comes mosquitos and I
Speaker 2: get bit a lot.
Speaker 1: You do you really struggle with that.
Speaker 2: It doesn't matter how long I'm outside, I will have
Speaker 2: at least eight to ten mosquitoes. That means if I'm
Speaker 2: outside for two seconds, I'm gonna have eight to ten
Speaker 2: mosquito bites. If I'm outside for an hour, I'm gonna
Speaker 2: have at least eight to ten mosquito bikes.
Speaker 1: I wish there was a cap on that like, and
Speaker 1: then it will you know, once you stay outside five minutes,
Speaker 1: you got your maximum mosquito bites, and then you can.
Speaker 2: Just say mosquitos bite me through my clothes. So now
Speaker 2: the routine is for me, before I put clothes on,
Speaker 2: I have to spray myself with OFF. I put long
Speaker 2: pants on, a long shirt on, and then I have
Speaker 2: to spray the clothes.
Speaker 1: Oh no.
Speaker 2: And then I have to be wearing a hoodie because
Speaker 2: I have to be able to pull the drawstrings so
Speaker 2: that I can protect my neck. And then I also
Speaker 2: have to spray off on my hands and tap it
Speaker 2: on my face. Oh no, because these things, these mosquitos,
Speaker 2: they are ruthless. They don't care about me or my
Speaker 2: life or the places that I have to go into
Speaker 2: things that I want to do.
Speaker 1: They will bite me no matter what. That's why you
Speaker 1: always sit inside when I'm grilling out.
Speaker 2: Yes, or I'll stand right next to the girl where
Speaker 2: all the smoke is.
Speaker 1: My friend is out here dressing like contagion. Help her somebody,
Speaker 1: it's just awful. Like I'm itchy. I'm scratching my.
Speaker 2: Arm right now because I have a mosquito bite, and
Speaker 2: I have a mosquito bike. I have a mosquito bite
Speaker 2: on my knee that I got this morning from walking
Speaker 2: my dog.
Speaker 1: You always have a tough time with mosquitoes.
Speaker 2: But it's not just me. Joanna Simpkin. You know we
Speaker 2: had her on episode eleven. Yes I look like they Yes,
Speaker 2: And you know she's all things beauty And she posted
Speaker 2: on her Instagram about these ankle bier mosquitos that are
Speaker 2: in southern California because she just moved to southern California
Speaker 2: and she is not happy.
Speaker 1: And then she also posted.
Speaker 2: A video of her legs and she has at least
Speaker 2: six mosquito bites on each leg.
Speaker 1: So you two shared the same condition.
Speaker 2: Yes, it's also not even just the bites, right, like
Speaker 2: they're itchy and they're uncomfortable, and mine.
Speaker 1: Swell up very, very big.
Speaker 2: But it's also like these mosquitoes, they transmit diseases. And
Speaker 2: there was a New York Times article that just came
Speaker 2: out like a month or two ago that was talking
Speaker 2: about how mosquitos are like the apex predator, that like
Speaker 2: none of us, everybody's sleep, no one knows.
Speaker 1: Everybody's out here thinking you're at the top of the
Speaker 1: food chain, right, and we not. The skito's gonna kill
Speaker 1: us all. Stay woke. You know what? This episode, we're
Speaker 1: gonna put the mosquito in the microscope. Let's get into it,
Speaker 1: all right. So we're at the recitation. So what we
Speaker 1: know is.
Speaker 2: Is that mosquitoes are everywhere, Yes, and some people get
Speaker 2: bit more than others, but we don't know why.
Speaker 1: But we also know that mosquitos can transmit diseases. So
Speaker 1: what do we want to know? I guess there are
Speaker 1: a couple of basic questions to start out with. Are
Speaker 1: all mosquitoes created equal? Do they all have to feed
Speaker 1: on blood? Right?
Speaker 2: And do they need the blood to live or are
Speaker 2: they just out here snacking on us?
Speaker 1: Is it a power up? Like this is not my
Speaker 1: basic diet. I'm having a steak.
Speaker 2: Today, right, this is the protein powder I needed to
Speaker 2: increase my muscle mass.
Speaker 1: And I guess do all mosquitoes transmit disease? Right?
Speaker 2: Is it specific species? Like different types of mosquitoes? Are
Speaker 2: there different types of mosquitos? They all look the same
Speaker 2: to me.
Speaker 1: Are there any friendly mosquitos that just land and say
Speaker 1: hello and fly away and don't bite.
Speaker 2: That's a good question because I need to figure out
Speaker 2: where they are because I need to move.
Speaker 1: That's where you want to go.
Speaker 2: Yes, I want to know if the mosquitoes here in
Speaker 2: the DC area are the same as the mosquitoes in California,
Speaker 2: same mosquitos in the Midwest, same mosquitos in the South.
Speaker 1: You want to know if there are regional mosquitoes.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and if they're the same or different. I feel
Speaker 2: like they should be different because we have different climates.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Can the mosquito traveled that far?
Speaker 2: Can the mosquito last a winter in Minnesota?
Speaker 1: Do they migrate like birds? Hmm?
Speaker 2: Now I've got a lot more questions. Yeah, and we
Speaker 2: can how far can a mosquito fly?
Speaker 1: And then what I want to know is what affects
Speaker 1: the spread of disease by mosquito? Is off enough, is
Speaker 1: deep enough? Are all mosquito blockers made the same? Do
Speaker 1: you remember Avon skin so soft? Yes, people swore by it,
Speaker 1: But was it really a mosquito repellent.
Speaker 2: I don't know.
Speaker 1: I don't think so.
Speaker 2: Personally, I don't think Avon had that technology.
Speaker 1: I don't remember ever saying mosquito repellent on it. I
Speaker 1: think there's a lot of questions that we need answer.
Speaker 1: Let's jump into the dissection.
Speaker 2: So to help us figure out all of these questions
Speaker 2: that we have about mosquitos, we called on doctor Lyric Bartholome.
Speaker 3: I'm a professor at the University of Wisconsin Madison in
Speaker 3: the School of Veterinary Medicine, and I'm a medical entomologist,
Speaker 3: so I study bloodsuckers and the pathogens that they transmit.
Speaker 2: The first thing that we learned from doctor Bartholome is
Speaker 2: that not all mosquitoes feed on blood.
Speaker 3: It's kind of cool to know that there are mosquitoes
Speaker 3: that don't ever blood feed.
Speaker 2: So you remember in Jurassic Park there was this mosquito
Speaker 2: and it bit a dinosaur and then the tree sap
Speaker 2: rolled on top of it and it encapsulated the mosquito,
Speaker 2: and that's how they were able to preserve the mosquito.
Speaker 2: Then take the blood out of the mosquito, and that's
Speaker 2: how they made Jurassic Park.
Speaker 1: Right.
Speaker 3: The irony there is that mosquito never ever blood feeds,
Speaker 3: so there's no way they got dinosaur blood.
Speaker 1: That mosquito.
Speaker 3: It's really beautiful to look at, but not one that
Speaker 3: even blood feeds.
Speaker 1: They didn't have any scientists consulting on that face. Seems
Speaker 1: like they didn't.
Speaker 2: That's why it's very important for all of these things
Speaker 2: science fiction. You need more scientists.
Speaker 1: So we know that not every species of mosquito feeds
Speaker 1: on blood, and of those that do, only the female
Speaker 1: does the biting, and.
Speaker 3: They need the blood in order to make the mosquito
Speaker 3: egg and every time she lays eggs, she could lay,
Speaker 3: depending on the species, you know, one hundred plus eggs.
Speaker 3: So they have this pretty awesome reproductive potential.
Speaker 1: There's a lot of mosquito power. One mosquito can lay
Speaker 1: one hundred eggs. Can you imagine?
Speaker 2: That's what's happening in my backyard as we speak. I
Speaker 2: feel like they're everywhere.
Speaker 1: So now we know these are only female mosquitos biting us.
Speaker 1: What happened to girl power? But the female mosquitoes can
Speaker 1: be picky about the blood that they feed on. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's not always human blood that they want. Have you
Speaker 1: seen those videos on Instagram where the guy and the
Speaker 1: girl in the car and basically they're saying a girlfriend
Speaker 1: never knows what she wants to eat, she's a picky eater.
Speaker 3: Yes that there are certain kinds of mosquitoes that are
Speaker 3: really strictly bird feeders or frog feeders. Some even feed
Speaker 3: on mudpuppies or little fish, so they're choosy about what
Speaker 3: they feed on.
Speaker 1: The blood isn't enough. The mosquitoes need more to live.
Speaker 3: They feed on nectar sources and maybe some rotting fruit
Speaker 3: and SAPs and things like that in order to fly
Speaker 3: and walk around.
Speaker 2: And so, I mean, I feel like maybe I'm being
Speaker 2: a little selfish, but I have a really big problem
Speaker 2: with mosquitos. Why me, Why Why are they biting me
Speaker 2: more than they're biting what feels like everybody else.
Speaker 3: We know that there are certain things that are universal attractants,
Speaker 3: like carbon dioxide. So just the fact that their outdoors
Speaker 3: breathing can be an attractant to a mosquito, warm bodies,
Speaker 3: and sweat. Those are things that are universal attractants. But
Speaker 3: we know too that there are people who are more
Speaker 3: attractive than other people, and that probably I'm guessing, boils
Speaker 3: down to the microbes on your skin in part, and
Speaker 3: the kind of volatiles that they release, and also the
Speaker 3: kinds of foods that you're eating. We know that that
Speaker 3: there's a period of time after you eat a banana,
Speaker 3: for example, that you might be more attractive to certain
Speaker 3: kinds of mosquitoes.
Speaker 1: When I was growing up, they used to say that
Speaker 1: meant you had sweet blood. I believe that because I
Speaker 1: am very nice.
Speaker 2: People are always saying how nice I am to them
Speaker 2: with your blood. You see, this is why mosquitos don't
Speaker 2: bite you. She started yelling at me. I just wanted
Speaker 2: to point that out. No one was yelling. Then, Tzakia,
Speaker 2: here she is.
Speaker 1: But then you always have those like huge mosquito bites.
Speaker 1: When I get a bite, it's just like a little
Speaker 1: bite here there. Why do you have a different reaction?
Speaker 2: My mosquito bites get so big it looks like something
Speaker 2: is trying to come out of my body.
Speaker 1: What was the name of that movie, The Alien? It
Speaker 1: was a grony weaver.
Speaker 2: Yes, when that thing started trying to come out the tummy,
Speaker 2: that's how big my uh tell me, I sound like
Speaker 2: a four year old. When that thing started trying to
Speaker 2: come out of that that person's stomach. M that's what
Speaker 2: my mosquito bites look like there. Use it usually looks
Speaker 2: like I have a lemon under my skin.
Speaker 1: What is causing that?
Speaker 3: Your body is responding to mosquito saliva being introduced into
Speaker 3: your body, So it's really the mosquito spit that your
Speaker 3: body is responding to.
Speaker 1: Now, there's one thing I know, and that's that our
Speaker 1: bodies are smart and TT especially I know you think
Speaker 1: your body is very smart. My body is a genius.
Speaker 2: The T show cells. My T show cells never let
Speaker 2: me down.
Speaker 1: So I guess I'm wondering, can you build up some
Speaker 1: type of response, so like where your body recognizes a
Speaker 1: certain type of mosquito spit and you don't get a
Speaker 1: big swelling lump.
Speaker 2: Doctor Bartholamey says, Yeah, that can definitely happen.
Speaker 3: And one of the things that we're seeing in DC
Speaker 3: is is that there's been an invasion of a couple
Speaker 3: of different kinds of mosquitoes. There and some mosquitoes that
Speaker 3: are really voracious daytime feeders, and they're perhaps newer to
Speaker 3: the area, and that could be one of the reasons
Speaker 3: that you're having that kind of extreme response because your
Speaker 3: body hasn't seen that before.
Speaker 1: So there's hope. Tt it sounds like, you.
Speaker 2: Know, maybe maybe you'll just gotta keep getting bit Oh
Speaker 2: this sounds awful.
Speaker 1: But next summer you're gonna be ready.
Speaker 2: Unless a new species of mosquitos show up. Oh I'm not.
Speaker 2: I'm not optimistic, not about this.
Speaker 1: You gotta change your attitude. Okay, change your shoes.
Speaker 2: Change the shoes, change your life, change life. Yes, mosquitoes
Speaker 2: are biting us and they're annoying and everything like that,
Speaker 2: but they do serve a purpose in the circle lot.
Speaker 1: Okay, yes, you're right. You know. One of the main
Speaker 1: things to know is that male mosquitos service pollinators.
Speaker 2: And we also know that there are other animals that
Speaker 2: feed on mosquitoes, so they're a good food source for
Speaker 2: like fish.
Speaker 1: And ducks and things like that. So we learned quite
Speaker 1: a few things about mosquitos. We learned about their feeding patterns. Right,
Speaker 1: that it's only female mosquitos that are biting us, and
Speaker 1: that it could be the microbes on your skin you
Speaker 1: need to change soap, and that I can't even breathe
Speaker 1: outside without attracting them things. Let's take a break and
Speaker 1: when we come back, we're going to talk about how
Speaker 1: mosquitoes transmit disease. So before we get into mosquitoes and
Speaker 1: mosquito born illnesses, let's introduce what we're talking about in
Speaker 1: our next lab. Lab fourteen is all about the art
Speaker 1: of the con We're going to dive into the neurobiology
Speaker 1: being conned. Have you been scammed? Are you out here scamming?
Speaker 1: Do you have a con story that we need to hear?
Speaker 1: Call us, we want to hear it.
Speaker 2: I know y'all are going to be saying all the
Speaker 2: crazy things.
Speaker 1: I'm following them on Instagram. I know some of them
Speaker 1: are out here. Knick absolutely you can reach us at
Speaker 1: two zero two five six seven seven zero two eight.
Speaker 1: Let's get into it. So there's a reason that we
Speaker 1: call the mosquito the apex predator because nearly seven hundred
Speaker 1: million people get mosquito born illnesses each year, and out
Speaker 1: of those seven hundred million, over one million results in death.
Speaker 1: That's a lot of people. Some of the most common
Speaker 1: mosquito born illnesses in the US are malaria, Dingay, and
Speaker 1: West Nile. So we know that mosquitos can transmit disease.
Speaker 1: Organisms that transmit disease are called vectors.
Speaker 3: So we call a vector an insect or a tick
Speaker 3: that can actively transmit a pathogen. So I do identify
Speaker 3: as a vector biologist.
Speaker 1: So you mentioned malaria is one of the diseases transmitted
Speaker 1: by mosquitos, but there are other diseases too.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so let's start with arboviruses. So an arbovirus is
Speaker 2: any virus that's transmitted by an arthropod vector.
Speaker 3: Somebody decided to call them arboviruses as a kind of
Speaker 3: conjunction of arthropod born viruses, so we just condensed the
Speaker 3: word to arboviruses, not thinking about the people who work
Speaker 3: on trees at all.
Speaker 2: The most prominent examples of an arbovirus are dengay, chicken, Gunya, Westnow,
Speaker 2: and Zica.
Speaker 3: We have these arthropod born viruses transmitted by really specific
Speaker 3: types of mosquitoes, and when they get into a person's body,
Speaker 3: tend to make us really really sick.
Speaker 1: So what are some of the symptoms.
Speaker 3: You could get? Something called danngay fever, where you have
Speaker 3: a really debilitating fever, sometimes like deep pain in your eyes,
Speaker 3: terrible headache, sometimes rash across the body. Chicken gunya is
Speaker 3: in a different group, but can equally make you really.
Speaker 1: Really sick.
Speaker 3: There's often a rash associated with getting chicken gunya and
Speaker 3: terrible a arthritis, so pain in the joints that often
Speaker 3: lasts and lingers for months.
Speaker 1: So mosquitoes can't transmit marboviruses, but there are also other
Speaker 1: mosquito born illnesses that aren't linked to viruses, like malaria,
Speaker 1: So there's an important distinction to be made there, right.
Speaker 2: Malaria is not the same as dengay or chicken gunya
Speaker 2: or zica. Malaria is caused by another organism, yeah pathogen
Speaker 2: called Plasmodium falciparum that sounds like something out of Harry
Speaker 2: Potter when Gardia Leo saw.
Speaker 3: We had malaria and we could still have malaria. We
Speaker 3: have mosquitos across the United States that are what we
Speaker 3: would call competent vectors. So if somebody were infected with
Speaker 3: malaria parasites, there are Anopheles mosquitoes around in Wisconsin and
Speaker 3: in DC and in LA that could get infected with
Speaker 3: those parasites and transmit them to other people.
Speaker 1: But is not as much of a threat if we
Speaker 1: don't have people that already have malaria or already have dingay.
Speaker 1: It sounds just like the vaccines. Yes, this is very
Speaker 1: similar to herd immunity, which in this scenario would play
Speaker 1: out as follows. If you lower the pool of people
Speaker 1: who already have malaria or dingay or some other parasite
Speaker 1: transmitted by mosquitoes, then when these mosquitoes that are available
Speaker 1: in those regions go to feed, they don't pick up
Speaker 1: the parasite. And I think doctor Bartholome also said that
Speaker 1: some mosquitoes don't have all the things in them necessary
Speaker 1: to be able to transmit the disease, so even when
Speaker 1: they have a parasite or virus, they aren't able to
Speaker 1: pass it on.
Speaker 3: It's a really important point to make that there are
Speaker 3: thirty six hundred different kinds of mosquito, but in any
Speaker 3: one of the groups of mosquitoes they're in, maybe ten
Speaker 3: percent of them are actually going to be able to
Speaker 3: transmit a passogen.
Speaker 1: So we just outlined the scenario for ill trade of purposes,
Speaker 1: but it's way more complex than just one mosquito biting you,
Speaker 1: going to the next person, biting them, and just spreading
Speaker 1: West nalvirus everywhere they go. Right.
Speaker 3: It's a process that takes a lot of time and
Speaker 3: sort of intimate interactions between the virus and all of
Speaker 3: the spaces it encounters inside the mosquito. And what we
Speaker 3: found is there are a lot of mosquitoes that put
Speaker 3: up walls or barriers to pathogens so that they maybe
Speaker 3: get in with the blood, but they never get any further.
Speaker 2: And there are just certain types of mosquitoes that are
Speaker 2: more likely to transmit the disease, Like certain species of
Speaker 2: mosquito transmit more parasites than others.
Speaker 3: So we have mosquitoes like eighties agypdi for example, and
Speaker 3: eighties albopictus. They really are what we call anthropophilic, so
Speaker 3: they really like to feed on people. And then they're also,
Speaker 3: it turns out physiologically really compatible with pathogens and so
Speaker 3: can transmit a lot of different kinds of viruses.
Speaker 1: So when we take all of this together, there's a
Speaker 1: really important point to take away, and that's that we're
Speaker 1: talking about all of the variables that have to be
Speaker 1: just right in order for you to have the spread
Speaker 1: or transmission of a mosquito born illness. So you need
Speaker 1: first a competent vector, which is a mosquito of a
Speaker 1: certain species. It then has to take up the parasite
Speaker 1: or virus. And then even once it takes up the
Speaker 1: parasite or virus, the life cycle of the parasite or
Speaker 1: virus right to replicate and be a high enough load.
Speaker 1: And then there's the transmission of biting someone and it
Speaker 1: actually transmitting enough parasite or virus to cause that person
Speaker 1: to be sick.
Speaker 2: Right, So, if you're thinking of this like a Venn diagram,
Speaker 2: there's a lot of bubbles that got to overlap in
Speaker 2: order for this thing to hit.
Speaker 1: But where could you go if you didn't want to
Speaker 1: be bitten at all?
Speaker 2: What doctor Bartholomann says is that I would have to
Speaker 2: go to the Arctic farewell, mate, I.
Speaker 3: Think the only part the world where there aren't mosquitoes
Speaker 3: or the extreme poles. So we're all kind of faced
Speaker 3: with issues of mosquitos and mosquito born disease wherever we
Speaker 3: are on the planet.
Speaker 2: But there is a difference in the types of mosquitoes
Speaker 2: that are around depending on where you are, Like even
Speaker 2: within the US.
Speaker 3: Some mosquitoes are really tropical or subtropical species that cannot
Speaker 3: stand like a Wisconsin winter, for example. And then there
Speaker 3: are mosquitoes that can persist even through the polar vortex
Speaker 3: that we experienced this last winter in Wisconsin.
Speaker 2: In the southern States, it's Zeka and chicken gunya that
Speaker 2: are more prevalent.
Speaker 3: In places like Florida, for example, there's a real threat
Speaker 3: because of the mosquitoes that are there that people can
Speaker 3: be infected by things like danngey and zeka.
Speaker 2: And west now is mostly in high plane states, so
Speaker 2: in the Midwest.
Speaker 3: In places where this one type of mosquito thrives, some
Speaker 3: mosquito called Qelex tarsalis, which is a mosquito that lives
Speaker 3: in really well in irrigation ditches. So you can imagine
Speaker 3: then that any place that's kind of arid and needs
Speaker 3: a lot of water for crops is going to be
Speaker 3: a place where that mosquito will thrive. And it's a
Speaker 3: particularly good vector or transmitter of West Nile virus.
Speaker 1: I think we've hit a lot of really good points
Speaker 1: here right. We've learned so much about just mosquitos in general.
Speaker 1: I did not know that about the female mosquito.
Speaker 2: Me either, and we learned about like how mosquito species
Speaker 2: determines a lot of different things, disease transmission, what.
Speaker 1: Kind of blood you're even going to feed on?
Speaker 2: Right, But now I think what's important for us to
Speaker 2: find out is how do we get these mosquitoes to
Speaker 2: not bite us?
Speaker 1: Yeah? How do we keep these transmission rates down?
Speaker 2: Doctor Bartholemey says that the focus right now is on
Speaker 2: what they call vector control, want approaches to use chemicals
Speaker 2: to kill the insect and their larvae.
Speaker 3: Just yesterday, I was out in the field in Milwaukee
Speaker 3: with a team of people that work in our in
Speaker 3: our center here at UW, and we were trying to
Speaker 3: control the mosquitos the transmit West Nile virus. So we
Speaker 3: were throwing marvasides, so things that kill the mosquito larvae
Speaker 3: down into the into the storm drains.
Speaker 1: Yeah, we had to delay our interview a day because
Speaker 1: she was out there beaten the feet, beaten the streets
Speaker 1: with her feet. What is it called beat the foot
Speaker 1: to pavement? It doesn't matter. She was out she was
Speaker 1: on the ground doing some vector control. And another approach,
Speaker 1: which feels a little counterintuitive, is to actually protect the mosquito.
Speaker 1: In this case, you're protecting the mosquito from arboviruses.
Speaker 3: There's some really exciting technology where we can release mosquitoes
Speaker 3: that are infected with a bacterium called well Bakia, and
Speaker 3: when those mosquitoes have that bacteria in their bodies, they're
Speaker 3: more resistant to virus infection.
Speaker 2: The third type of vector control is using crisper, which
Speaker 2: we've mentioned in another episode, and it's a gene editing technology.
Speaker 3: We're talking to about how that could apply to controlling
Speaker 3: mosquitos or controlling mosquito born pathogens so that the virus
Speaker 3: can't bind with a gut and get through.
Speaker 2: So really the solution is not an ore, it's an
Speaker 2: and yes, we need all of these things going at
Speaker 2: the same time in order for it to really work.
Speaker 3: We really strongly advocate for a kind of what we
Speaker 3: call integrated approach, where you would think about using multiple
Speaker 3: types of controls so that you're not pushing for ever
Speaker 3: developing resistance in the mosquito or the pathogen that it transmits.
Speaker 2: So that's what scientists are doing to help with controlling
Speaker 2: mosquito born illnesses. But what can we do It's really
Speaker 2: all about buckspray and if you're me a lot of
Speaker 2: extra layers of clothes.
Speaker 3: We don't have vaccine preventatives, and so the real way
Speaker 3: to intervene is to keep yourself from getting fed on
Speaker 3: by the mosquitos that can transmit the virus. Deet is
Speaker 3: tried and true and proven as a repellent for many
Speaker 3: many differ friend species, and in the testing they usually
Speaker 3: test against, you know, sort of a suite of three
Speaker 3: or four different kinds of mosquitoes.
Speaker 2: I always thought that deep and bugspray and stuff like that,
Speaker 2: it was that when the bug lands on you, it's
Speaker 2: just like, oh, this is nasty. But she said it
Speaker 2: just can't recognize you as a food source, like it
Speaker 2: confuses them those chemicals.
Speaker 1: Yeah, well it's a little bit. That's the that's the confusion, right, Oh, okay,
Speaker 1: it's confusing it so it doesn't say this is an
Speaker 1: attractive source that I should maybe try to bite.
Speaker 3: And I know there are a lot of people who
Speaker 3: don't like it. You can find a lot of things
Speaker 3: on the internet about deet having adverse sort of side effects.
Speaker 3: I think the important thing is to use the EPA
Speaker 3: decision making tree to figure out which type of product
Speaker 3: works best for you.
Speaker 1: Let's end you this text message about the article that
Speaker 1: show that. You know, people say deep is really harmful,
Speaker 1: so you shouldn't use it in high amounts. But me
Speaker 1: and my house we will stick to deep because mosquito
Speaker 1: have what's similar to taste receptors on their feet, so
Speaker 1: when they land, they taste the deep and it's like ugh,
Speaker 1: it's bitter, and they leave and they don't come back,
Speaker 1: and they don't. So they not only do they they
Speaker 1: land and leave right whereas other mosquito repellents don't have
Speaker 1: that strong response. The mosquitoes don't have that strong negative response,
Speaker 1: so they will still land, but it just they're not
Speaker 1: as tempted to bite. I don't want you to land.
Speaker 2: Or bite Okay, I don't want you to touch me
Speaker 2: and I don't want you to bite me.
Speaker 1: I want when you land on me. I wanted to
Speaker 1: be like landing on cement. You're saying nothing here, nothing
Speaker 1: to see here, and move along. And one of my
Speaker 1: favorite home remedies. All you entomologies out there, listen up.
Speaker 1: The kids got the cure. No, I'm not standing the care.
Speaker 1: I'm saying as an everyday person, and you're you know
Speaker 1: you have a backyard or you have a front yard,
Speaker 1: depending on where you live, if there is any standing
Speaker 1: water to get rid of it. Do you have kids
Speaker 1: toys and it's a dump truck and it's got a
Speaker 1: little thing in the back and there's just standing water.
Speaker 1: Get rid of any standing water that you can turn
Speaker 1: those things, turn those chairs upside down.
Speaker 2: And what I just found out because of the stuff
Speaker 2: that doctor bartholow Me was saying, is that it's probably
Speaker 2: my compost bind that I have in the backyard that
Speaker 2: is attracting all of those mosquitos because they're getting nectar
Speaker 2: from the rotting fruits and veggies that I put in there.
Speaker 2: You put a lot of fruit in there, I do,
Speaker 2: And so maybe I need to get a different type
Speaker 2: of compost bin, one that's closed that I can use
Speaker 2: like a crank on the side to just rotate.
Speaker 1: It and steal it off. And I feel like I
Speaker 1: just got.
Speaker 2: A mosquito, but you probably did. It's probably mosquitos in
Speaker 2: the house.
Speaker 1: They going to Daisy's bread. Daisy, close your mouth. Well,
Speaker 1: now I know what I need to do.
Speaker 2: One thing that I know is that I'm probably always
Speaker 2: going to be bit by mosquitos. But my reaction to
Speaker 2: them will probably be different every year.
Speaker 1: It's really interesting that the swell that we see and say, oh,
Speaker 1: this is a mosquito bite that's caused by the spit,
Speaker 1: not the action of them biting you.
Speaker 2: So it's like the itching and the swelling and the
Speaker 2: warm feeling.
Speaker 1: That's all a reaction. Do I need to take more? Benejo?
Speaker 1: You got a strong immune system? You said it. Your
Speaker 1: immune system is on overload. But now I'm gonna check
Speaker 1: your bug spray and make sure that it has deep Yeah,
Speaker 1: I definitely don't have deep buckspray. Girl. I think the
Speaker 1: really interesting thing for me was to learn all the
Speaker 1: stuff that scientists are doing and public health officials are
Speaker 1: doing to keep the transmission rates low. I did not
Speaker 1: know people were out here pouring that stuff down into
Speaker 1: the storm drain.
Speaker 2: It's wild, and scientists are really doing a lot of
Speaker 2: important work out there, work that I didn't even know
Speaker 2: what's happening.
Speaker 1: I'm glad it's happening, and it makes sense if we
Speaker 1: know that the mosquitos are laying eggs and standing water
Speaker 1: are an apex predator. You got to get them out
Speaker 1: of here.
Speaker 2: And I think what was most interesting for me was learning, like,
Speaker 2: how many different types.
Speaker 1: Of mosquitos are out there.
Speaker 2: I had no idea that there were so many different
Speaker 2: types if you would ask me out said, they're probably two.
Speaker 1: Oh my goodness.
Speaker 2: Yeah, the ones that have betten me and the ones
Speaker 2: that have not been me. But it's so interesting to
Speaker 2: know that there are some mosquitos out there that really
Speaker 2: mean me no harm.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so there's hope they won't bite you at all.
Speaker 1: You can come outside, Bubba Girl.
Speaker 2: Don't forget to check out our website for a cheat
Speaker 2: sheet on today's episode. You can find it and sign
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Speaker 2: You can find us on Twitter and Instagram at Dope
Speaker 2: Labs podcast.
Speaker 1: Tt is on Twitter at d R Underscore t Sho,
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Speaker 2: Special thanks today to our guest doctor Lyric Bartholome. You
Speaker 2: can learn more about her and the show notes.
Speaker 1: Our producer is Jenny Rattlup. Mass mixing and sound designed
Speaker 1: by Hannes Brown. Special thanks this week to Zoe Sullivan.
Speaker 2: Original theme music by Takea Yasuzawa and Alex Sugi Eurra
Speaker 2: Additional music by Elijah Alex Harvey. Dope Labs is a
Speaker 2: production of Spotify Studios and Mega Owned Media Group, and
Speaker 2: it's executive produced by us T T show Dia.
Speaker 1: And Zakiah Wattley. Narthur pod is an animal that's part
Speaker 1: of a larger group called arthur Potta and that includes insects, fighters,
Speaker 1: and crustaceans. And this is where I have my problem.
Speaker 1: Why are insects and spiders and crustaceans grouped together? Is
Speaker 1: a lobster a sea roach?
Speaker 2: I think that that we can't say that a lobster
Speaker 2: is a sea roach.
Speaker 1: We can't. You're right. I think a shrimp is a
Speaker 1: sea roach. That has to be the eastern end. Oh
Speaker 1: my gosh.