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Mosquitoes Beginning To Ignore DEET Repellent
Copper Nikus writes "An article at the BBC makes a shocking claim about mosquitoes. It appears some individual insects in the wild have developed the ability to ignore the very popular DEET repellent after a first exposure. From the article: 'To investigate why this might be happening, the researchers attached electrodes to the insects' antenna.
Dr Logan explained: "We were able to record the response of the receptors on the antenna to Deet, and what we found was the mosquitoes were no longer as sensitive to the chemical, so they weren't picking it up as well.
"There is something about being exposed to the chemical that first time that changes their olfactory system - changes their sense of smell - and their ability to smell Deet, which makes it less effective."'"
Yeah, it's called evolution.
Oh great, the next step is anyone with DEET gets swarmed by these little bastards. Think about it, once they learn it's not that bad, where else do they smell DEET but fresh blood sources?
They'd save billions of people's lives if only the evil environmentalists hadn't caused them to be universally banned!
Yes, sure, they would be brown people, and that's bad, but damnit, we need to blame the Left for more things that didn't happen, like the Sinking of Atlantis and the Invasion of the Decepticons.
I wish humanity was still subjected to evolutionary pressure, like these mosquitoes, that would drive gross human evolution. Right now, our species would no longer improve unless we use genetic engineering.
This only proves that the ways and will of God is ineffable. To even suggest it's evolution in action is blasphemy.
Any documented instance of mosquitoes ignoring DDT?
So wrong on so many levels.
Not even funny.
Lurk moar.
I will be the first one to bow down to our mosquito overlords.
So while you were at school, did you learn how Jesus fought Dinosaurs with an AK-47 while riding on the back of a Unicorn?
John Quiggin and Tim Lambert have written that "the most striking feature of the claim against Carson is the ease with which it can be refuted." DDT was never banned for anti-malarial use,[85] (its ban for agricultural use in the United States in 1972 did not apply outside the US or to anti-malaria spraying;[86] the international treaty that banned most uses of DDT and other organochlorine pesticides — the 2001 Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants — included an exemption for DDT for the use of malaria control until affordable substitutes could be found.[79]) Mass outdoor spraying of DDT was abandoned in poor countries subject to malaria, such as Sri Lanka, in the 1970s and 1980s, not because of government prohibitions, but because the DDT had lost its ability to kill the mosquitoes.[79] (Because of insects very short breeding cycle and large number of offspring, the most resistant insects that survive and pass on their genetic traits to their offspring replace the pesticide-slain insects relatively rapidly. Agricultural spraying of pesticides produces resistance to the pesticide in seven to ten years.[87])
Just because you don't believe in it. Does not make evolution go away.
Here we have yet another example of a lifeform that lives on a fast enough timescale for us to directly observe evolution in action.
And it too will be ignored by the insane. Or called that intelligent design crap.
Thats the funny thing about beliefs... they have little to do with facts and reality. I wish we could evolve away from that. Maybe someday....
Mosquitoes serve no real purpose in the ecosystem and the world would be better off without these quasi-parasitical creatures. I think there needs to be a worldwide effort to drive mosquitoes to extinction in the wild (kind of like what happened to smallpox in the last century). As an added bonus, we would greatly reduce the incidence of malaria because IIRC mosquitoes are the only vector used for infection.
Then charge the mosquitoes a license fee to evolve.
That should stop them.
Sent from my ENIAC
By "school" he really meant "what Rush Limbaugh told me".
You know how it is... something becomes trendy or goes viral and then the hipsters are all like "that is so yesterday". Mosquitoes from Thailand started the "Ignore DEET, Just Say Phuket" meme after the press got all up in arms about how popular DEET has become with human partiers:
http://www.ttrweekly.com/site/2012/09/phi-phi-home-to-deadly-cocktails/
http://phuketwan.com/tourism/phi-phis-killer-cocktail-buckets-time-health-officials-explain-death-riddle-16598/
http://www.cbc.ca/news/health/story/2012/08/31/montreal-sisters-die-thailand-insecticide.html
http://www.phuketgazette.net/phuket_news/2012/DEET-in-lethal-party-cocktail-killed-Canadian-sisters-Autopsy-16811.html
I deny that I have not avoided attaining the opposite of that which I do not want.
The original article was insightful, it enlightened us to a new evolution taking place. This is just a snarky restatement without any added, and in fact far less, information.
The article straight off says mosquitoes are evolving, and talks about the research as to in the mechanism that is changing.
I am truly "shock[ed]", no one could of ever predicted this completely unique adaptation.
Troll is not a replacement for I disagree.
Nature will ALWAYS evolve it's way around obstacles!
Careful, we don't want any actual facts to get in the way of spittle flecked rant.
And I'm sure the person sitting next to me is tastier...
There's a device I've used with some success that works ONLY against bloodsuckers. It's called a "Mosquito Magnet".
Mosquitoes are attracted to things with blood. They apparently track their food by warmth, exhaled carbon dioxide, and a few other chemicals. This devices emits warmth, carbon dioxide and a few other chemicals in an attractant. The device is quite sensitive though. I've placed a battery driven model outside, under a small wooden table, to protect it from the elements. It definitely captures mosquitoes but sometimes it makes a difference, sometimes it doesn't. Mine is 5 years old. Last year it was... eh. Not as dramatic as year 1. I need to get it serviced this year I suppose.
Anyhoo, focusing on something like the mosquito's natural drives to attract them to a trap might be the Next Big Thing. Note that bug zappers don't attract mosquitos.
The People for the Eating of Tastey Animals oppose DEET because it makes mosquitos taste funny when fried in lard.
"The Adobe Updater must update itself before it can check for updates. Would you like to update the Adobe Updater now?"
Don't use the same chemicals too often as small insects adapt to it quite fast. Just ask weed growers how well their toxic miticides don't work on spider mites anymore. I bet the weed you're smoking has Avid, Floramite, Monitor, Forbid or othe rnasties on it as some are resorting to using them at WAY more potent mixes and past the residual time of the chemical.
by TheSpoom (715771) Uncaring Linux user here. I have nothing to add to this but please continue. *munches popcorn*
When i walked home from work the other day, I didn't notice a single mosquito.
My conclusion is that they don't like certain environmental factors.
The temperature was about 242 Kelvin
So if we can keep the place cool, we won't have to worry.
...... is still not understood by most. And I think we are stuck in an odd place here.
Insects evolution is faster than animals like dodos. We can't walk around beating them with a club till they go extinct. Mosquito nets used to be the most effective form of protection, until now. The mosquitoes are getting smaller. And adapting to chemicals is an inevitability. Too many of them reproducing at very high rates. Making them infertile seems to be best way around this all.
But more importantly, we still have absolutely no clue what role the mosquitoes play in ecological niches. Will their extinction lead to irreversible changes that affect the very fabric of nature? Humans vs. mosquitoes - who is more important to nature. Does anyone want to answer that question? Does the increase in human population directly correlate with the increase in mosquito population? We are their food after-all ....
As someone with the pleasure of living near mangroves (Brisbane Australia) I can attest to the relatively ineffective deterrence offered by common DEET-based repellents (
Patent litigation: A doctrine of Mutually Assured Destruction... in which everyone seems willing to push the button
I wonder how much the mosquito lobby has spent relative to other special interest groups.
Thank god shark repellent still works! http://www.ebaumsworld.com/video/watch/82773565/
We should be introducing infertile mosquitos into the wild.
If we could evolve mosquitos to be infertile, then we could release them into the wild, where they would breed with other wild mosquitos. After a few dozen generations, most mosquitos would be infertile. Problem solved!
Why is it only me that can figure this stuff out?
was abandoned in poor countries subject to malaria, such as Sri Lanka, in the 1970s and 1980s, not because of government prohibitions, but because the DDT had lost its ability to kill the mosquitoes
http://www.malaria.org/attarannaturemed.html :
"American funds, which underwrote the eradication campaign, soon lapsed, and overuse of DDT in agriculture bred DDT-resistant mosquitoes."
"But despite 'resistance' in itself, DDT still works to alleviate mortality and morbidity. Resistance tests work by measuring whether mosquitoes survive a normally toxic dose of DDT. The tests wholly overlook two non-toxic actions of DDT: contact-mediated irritancy9, which drives mosquitoes off sprayed walls and out of doors before they bite, and volatile repellency10, 11, which deters their entry in the first place. Both actions disrupt human–mosquito contact and disease transmission."
BTW, I am from Sri Lanka.
Nature is more intelligent than US Republicans, it doesn't ignore Darwin's findings ;)
An article at the BBC makes a shocking claim [...]
Why you Britts have to be shocked at everything ?
This is life, sh.. happens, get over it.
Btw, is this a shocking comment ?
The parts of the world with accurate warning labels don't have growing populations.
We're aggressively selecting for traits which resist birth control.
I wasn't aware mosquitoes EVER responded to repellent, DEET or otherwise.
DEET sucks. I've worked in areas with loads and loads of ticks. I sprayed with a lot of DEET and it didn't make a difference in how many ticks I'd get. I started using Repel. (That's since been relabeled to something else that I can't remember at the moment) THAT worked. DEET-based doesn't seem to stop anything, it's got to have permethrin. Once the little bitey things get used to that, I don't know what I'm gonna do.
I spent a couple of years in Maine recently and I can tell you DEET mostly just pissed them off. I grew up in Michigan and I've had a lot of experience over the years with Mosquitoes. The ones in Maine are more aggressive. If you walked in the woods with DEET on it was like wearing a coat of mosquitoes. They didn't like lighting but some did. I think it was akin to having Mace sprayed in your eyes while you ate. If you're hungry enough you tough it out. I can tell you black flies thought DEET was Channel #5. For mosquitpes try catnip oil. It's a nontoxic irritant although you may have to pry the neighborhood cats off you.
You need to bread them first.
If today's mosquitoes were immune to DEET from birth, that would seem to be evolution. An individual adapting is not evolution.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
While mosquitoes are evolving to be smarter, humans keep spreading carcinogens on them to avoid a little itch.
I haven't thought of anything clever to put here, but then again most of you haven't either.
Obviously we should have been draining all the swamps!
Mosquito breeding cycles are far shorter than those of Homo sapiens. They've had since 1957 to evolve to ignore DEET.
I have had this suspicion for a few years now. Whenever I go into a mosquito heavy environment, not all of the little buggers will stay away, even from a path of skin I just sprayed. Every year it seems like I get more and more bites no mater how much I douse myself. I bet the researcher was having the same thing happen to him. He just had the knowledge, tools, and drive to actually study it.
Dust yourself down with flowers of sulphur. That is what special forces use and I am telling you especially around camp in in the amazon army ants will not go near you. Still works... you stink a little but you can always wash yourself down later.