Lab 013: Predator

Welcome to Semester two perfect.

I'm t T and I'm Zachiah and from Spotify Studios.

This is Dope Labs. Summer's coming to a close. I can't believe it. I feel like this whole year has been like, yeah, it.

Was January, then I took a nap, and now it's September.

I just remember we were together and I was like, it's so hot. I feel like everything is sticking to everything else. We always complain when it's so hot in summer. But then the other day I was like, falls back, and we started looking for our parkas yes, and already started complaining because there's a little yeah one day where it was a little bit chili and then everybody was like, oh uh uh, I thought chili, we mean below eighty degrees with no humidity, and everybody was pissed. Yes, we're

I'm a miss summer, but you know, I really cannot stand mosquitoes, so that's something I'm not gonna miss.

I love you, Summer, but not your friend.

The mosquito right, because with summer comes mosquitos and I get bit a lot.

You do you really struggle with that.

It doesn't matter how long I'm outside, I will have at least eight to ten mosquitoes. That means if I'm outside for two seconds, I'm gonna have eight to ten mosquito bites. If I'm outside for an hour, I'm gonna have at least eight to ten mosquito bikes.

I wish there was a cap on that like, and then it will you know, once you stay outside five minutes, you got your maximum mosquito bites, and then you can.

Just say mosquitos bite me through my clothes. So now the routine is for me, before I put clothes on, I have to spray myself with OFF. I put long pants on, a long shirt on, and then I have to spray the clothes.

Oh no.

And then I have to be wearing a hoodie because I have to be able to pull the drawstrings so that I can protect my neck. And then I also have to spray off on my hands and tap it on my face. Oh no, because these things, these mosquitos, they are ruthless. They don't care about me or my life or the places that I have to go into things that I want to do.

They will bite me no matter what. That's why you always sit inside when I'm grilling out.

Yes, or I'll stand right next to the girl where all the smoke is.

My friend is out here dressing like contagion. Help her somebody, it's just awful. Like I'm itchy. I'm scratching my.

Arm right now because I have a mosquito bite, and I have a mosquito bike. I have a mosquito bite on my knee that I got this morning from walking my dog.

You always have a tough time with mosquitoes.

But it's not just me. Joanna Simpkin. You know we had her on episode eleven. Yes I look like they Yes, And you know she's all things beauty And she posted on her Instagram about these ankle bier mosquitos that are in southern California because she just moved to southern California and she is not happy.

And then she also posted.

A video of her legs and she has at least six mosquito bites on each leg.

So you two shared the same condition.

Yes, it's also not even just the bites, right, like they're itchy and they're uncomfortable, and mine.

Swell up very, very big.

But it's also like these mosquitoes, they transmit diseases. And there was a New York Times article that just came out like a month or two ago that was talking about how mosquitos are like the apex predator, that like none of us, everybody's sleep, no one knows.

Everybody's out here thinking you're at the top of the food chain, right, and we not. The skito's gonna kill us all. Stay woke. You know what? This episode, we're gonna put the mosquito in the microscope. Let's get into it, all right. So we're at the recitation. So what we know is.

Is that mosquitoes are everywhere, Yes, and some people get bit more than others, but we don't know why.

But we also know that mosquitos can transmit diseases. So what do we want to know? I guess there are a couple of basic questions to start out with. Are all mosquitoes created equal? Do they all have to feed on blood? Right?

And do they need the blood to live or are they just out here snacking on us?

Is it a power up? Like this is not my basic diet. I'm having a steak.

Today, right, this is the protein powder I needed to increase my muscle mass.

And I guess do all mosquitoes transmit disease? Right?

Is it specific species? Like different types of mosquitoes? Are there different types of mosquitos? They all look the same to me.

Are there any friendly mosquitos that just land and say hello and fly away and don't bite.

That's a good question because I need to figure out where they are because I need to move.

That's where you want to go.

Yes, I want to know if the mosquitoes here in the DC area are the same as the mosquitoes in California, same mosquitos in the Midwest, same mosquitos in the South.

You want to know if there are regional mosquitoes.

Yeah, and if they're the same or different. I feel like they should be different because we have different climates.

Yeah. Can the mosquito traveled that far?

Can the mosquito last a winter in Minnesota?

Do they migrate like birds? Hmm?

Now I've got a lot more questions. Yeah, and we can how far can a mosquito fly?

And then what I want to know is what affects the spread of disease by mosquito? Is off enough, is deep enough? Are all mosquito blockers made the same? Do you remember Avon skin so soft? Yes, people swore by it, But was it really a mosquito repellent.

I don't know.

I don't think so.

Personally, I don't think Avon had that technology.

I don't remember ever saying mosquito repellent on it. I think there's a lot of questions that we need answer. Let's jump into the dissection.

So to help us figure out all of these questions that we have about mosquitos, we called on doctor Lyric Bartholome.

I'm a professor at the University of Wisconsin Madison in the School of Veterinary Medicine, and I'm a medical entomologist, so I study bloodsuckers and the pathogens that they transmit.

The first thing that we learned from doctor Bartholome is that not all mosquitoes feed on blood.

It's kind of cool to know that there are mosquitoes that don't ever blood feed.

So you remember in Jurassic Park there was this mosquito and it bit a dinosaur and then the tree sap rolled on top of it and it encapsulated the mosquito, and that's how they were able to preserve the mosquito. Then take the blood out of the mosquito, and that's how they made Jurassic Park.

Right.

The irony there is that mosquito never ever blood feeds, so there's no way they got dinosaur blood.

That mosquito.

It's really beautiful to look at, but not one that even blood feeds.

They didn't have any scientists consulting on that face. Seems like they didn't.

That's why it's very important for all of these things science fiction. You need more scientists.

So we know that not every species of mosquito feeds on blood, and of those that do, only the female does the biting, and.

They need the blood in order to make the mosquito egg and every time she lays eggs, she could lay, depending on the species, you know, one hundred plus eggs. So they have this pretty awesome reproductive potential.

There's a lot of mosquito power. One mosquito can lay one hundred eggs. Can you imagine?

That's what's happening in my backyard as we speak. I feel like they're everywhere.

So now we know these are only female mosquitos biting us. What happened to girl power? But the female mosquitoes can be picky about the blood that they feed on. Yeah, it's not always human blood that they want. Have you seen those videos on Instagram where the guy and the girl in the car and basically they're saying a girlfriend never knows what she wants to eat, she's a picky eater.

Yes that there are certain kinds of mosquitoes that are really strictly bird feeders or frog feeders. Some even feed on mudpuppies or little fish, so they're choosy about what they feed on.

The blood isn't enough. The mosquitoes need more to live.

They feed on nectar sources and maybe some rotting fruit and SAPs and things like that in order to fly and walk around.

And so, I mean, I feel like maybe I'm being a little selfish, but I have a really big problem with mosquitos. Why me, Why Why are they biting me more than they're biting what feels like everybody else.

We know that there are certain things that are universal attractants, like carbon dioxide. So just the fact that their outdoors breathing can be an attractant to a mosquito, warm bodies, and sweat. Those are things that are universal attractants. But we know too that there are people who are more attractive than other people, and that probably I'm guessing, boils down to the microbes on your skin in part, and the kind of volatiles that they release, and also the

When I was growing up, they used to say that meant you had sweet blood. I believe that because I am very nice.

People are always saying how nice I am to them with your blood. You see, this is why mosquitos don't bite you. She started yelling at me. I just wanted to point that out. No one was yelling. Then, Tzakia, here she is.

But then you always have those like huge mosquito bites. When I get a bite, it's just like a little bite here there. Why do you have a different reaction?

My mosquito bites get so big it looks like something is trying to come out of my body.

What was the name of that movie, The Alien? It was a grony weaver.

Yes, when that thing started trying to come out the tummy, that's how big my uh tell me, I sound like a four year old. When that thing started trying to come out of that that person's stomach. M that's what my mosquito bites look like there. Use it usually looks like I have a lemon under my skin.

What is causing that?

Your body is responding to mosquito saliva being introduced into your body, So it's really the mosquito spit that your body is responding to.

Now, there's one thing I know, and that's that our bodies are smart and TT especially I know you think your body is very smart. My body is a genius.

The T show cells. My T show cells never let me down.

So I guess I'm wondering, can you build up some type of response, so like where your body recognizes a certain type of mosquito spit and you don't get a big swelling lump.

Doctor Bartholamey says, Yeah, that can definitely happen.

And one of the things that we're seeing in DC is is that there's been an invasion of a couple of different kinds of mosquitoes. There and some mosquitoes that are really voracious daytime feeders, and they're perhaps newer to the area, and that could be one of the reasons that you're having that kind of extreme response because your body hasn't seen that before.

So there's hope. Tt it sounds like, you.

Know, maybe maybe you'll just gotta keep getting bit Oh this sounds awful.

But next summer you're gonna be ready.

Unless a new species of mosquitos show up. Oh I'm not. I'm not optimistic, not about this.

You gotta change your attitude. Okay, change your shoes.

Change the shoes, change your life, change life. Yes, mosquitoes are biting us and they're annoying and everything like that, but they do serve a purpose in the circle lot.

Okay, yes, you're right. You know. One of the main things to know is that male mosquitos service pollinators.

And we also know that there are other animals that feed on mosquitoes, so they're a good food source for like fish.

And ducks and things like that. So we learned quite a few things about mosquitos. We learned about their feeding patterns. Right, that it's only female mosquitos that are biting us, and that it could be the microbes on your skin you need to change soap, and that I can't even breathe outside without attracting them things. Let's take a break and when we come back, we're going to talk about how

I know y'all are going to be saying all the crazy things.

I'm following them on Instagram. I know some of them are out here. Knick absolutely you can reach us at two zero two five six seven seven zero two eight. Let's get into it. So there's a reason that we call the mosquito the apex predator because nearly seven hundred million people get mosquito born illnesses each year, and out of those seven hundred million, over one million results in death.

So we call a vector an insect or a tick that can actively transmit a pathogen. So I do identify as a vector biologist.

So you mentioned malaria is one of the diseases transmitted by mosquitos, but there are other diseases too.

Yeah, so let's start with arboviruses. So an arbovirus is any virus that's transmitted by an arthropod vector.

Somebody decided to call them arboviruses as a kind of conjunction of arthropod born viruses, so we just condensed the word to arboviruses, not thinking about the people who work on trees at all.

The most prominent examples of an arbovirus are dengay, chicken, Gunya, Westnow, and Zica.

We have these arthropod born viruses transmitted by really specific types of mosquitoes, and when they get into a person's body, tend to make us really really sick.

So what are some of the symptoms.

You could get? Something called danngay fever, where you have a really debilitating fever, sometimes like deep pain in your eyes, terrible headache, sometimes rash across the body. Chicken gunya is in a different group, but can equally make you really.

Really sick.

There's often a rash associated with getting chicken gunya and terrible a arthritis, so pain in the joints that often lasts and lingers for months.

So mosquitoes can't transmit marboviruses, but there are also other mosquito born illnesses that aren't linked to viruses, like malaria, So there's an important distinction to be made there, right.

Malaria is not the same as dengay or chicken gunya or zica. Malaria is caused by another organism, yeah pathogen called Plasmodium falciparum that sounds like something out of Harry Potter when Gardia Leo saw.

We had malaria and we could still have malaria. We have mosquitos across the United States that are what we would call competent vectors. So if somebody were infected with malaria parasites, there are Anopheles mosquitoes around in Wisconsin and in DC and in LA that could get infected with those parasites and transmit them to other people.

But is not as much of a threat if we don't have people that already have malaria or already have dingay. It sounds just like the vaccines. Yes, this is very similar to herd immunity, which in this scenario would play out as follows. If you lower the pool of people who already have malaria or dingay or some other parasite transmitted by mosquitoes, then when these mosquitoes that are available in those regions go to feed, they don't pick up

It's a really important point to make that there are thirty six hundred different kinds of mosquito, but in any one of the groups of mosquitoes they're in, maybe ten percent of them are actually going to be able to transmit a passogen.

So we just outlined the scenario for ill trade of purposes, but it's way more complex than just one mosquito biting you, going to the next person, biting them, and just spreading West nalvirus everywhere they go. Right.

It's a process that takes a lot of time and sort of intimate interactions between the virus and all of the spaces it encounters inside the mosquito. And what we found is there are a lot of mosquitoes that put up walls or barriers to pathogens so that they maybe get in with the blood, but they never get any further.

And there are just certain types of mosquitoes that are more likely to transmit the disease, Like certain species of mosquito transmit more parasites than others.

So we have mosquitoes like eighties agypdi for example, and eighties albopictus. They really are what we call anthropophilic, so they really like to feed on people. And then they're also, it turns out physiologically really compatible with pathogens and so can transmit a lot of different kinds of viruses.

So when we take all of this together, there's a really important point to take away, and that's that we're talking about all of the variables that have to be just right in order for you to have the spread or transmission of a mosquito born illness. So you need first a competent vector, which is a mosquito of a certain species. It then has to take up the parasite

Right, So, if you're thinking of this like a Venn diagram, there's a lot of bubbles that got to overlap in order for this thing to hit.

But where could you go if you didn't want to be bitten at all?

What doctor Bartholomann says is that I would have to go to the Arctic farewell, mate, I.

Think the only part the world where there aren't mosquitoes or the extreme poles. So we're all kind of faced with issues of mosquitos and mosquito born disease wherever we are on the planet.

But there is a difference in the types of mosquitoes that are around depending on where you are, Like even within the US.

Some mosquitoes are really tropical or subtropical species that cannot stand like a Wisconsin winter, for example. And then there are mosquitoes that can persist even through the polar vortex that we experienced this last winter in Wisconsin.

In the southern States, it's Zeka and chicken gunya that are more prevalent.

In places like Florida, for example, there's a real threat because of the mosquitoes that are there that people can be infected by things like danngey and zeka.

And west now is mostly in high plane states, so in the Midwest.

In places where this one type of mosquito thrives, some mosquito called Qelex tarsalis, which is a mosquito that lives in really well in irrigation ditches. So you can imagine then that any place that's kind of arid and needs a lot of water for crops is going to be a place where that mosquito will thrive. And it's a particularly good vector or transmitter of West Nile virus.

I think we've hit a lot of really good points here right. We've learned so much about just mosquitos in general. I did not know that about the female mosquito.

Me either, and we learned about like how mosquito species determines a lot of different things, disease transmission, what.

Kind of blood you're even going to feed on?

Right, But now I think what's important for us to find out is how do we get these mosquitoes to not bite us?

Yeah? How do we keep these transmission rates down?

Doctor Bartholemey says that the focus right now is on what they call vector control, want approaches to use chemicals to kill the insect and their larvae.

Just yesterday, I was out in the field in Milwaukee with a team of people that work in our in our center here at UW, and we were trying to control the mosquitos the transmit West Nile virus. So we were throwing marvasides, so things that kill the mosquito larvae down into the into the storm drains.

Yeah, we had to delay our interview a day because she was out there beaten the feet, beaten the streets with her feet. What is it called beat the foot to pavement? It doesn't matter. She was out she was on the ground doing some vector control. And another approach, which feels a little counterintuitive, is to actually protect the mosquito. In this case, you're protecting the mosquito from arboviruses.

There's some really exciting technology where we can release mosquitoes that are infected with a bacterium called well Bakia, and when those mosquitoes have that bacteria in their bodies, they're more resistant to virus infection.

The third type of vector control is using crisper, which we've mentioned in another episode, and it's a gene editing technology.

We're talking to about how that could apply to controlling mosquitos or controlling mosquito born pathogens so that the virus can't bind with a gut and get through.

So really the solution is not an ore, it's an and yes, we need all of these things going at the same time in order for it to really work.

We really strongly advocate for a kind of what we call integrated approach, where you would think about using multiple types of controls so that you're not pushing for ever developing resistance in the mosquito or the pathogen that it transmits.

So that's what scientists are doing to help with controlling mosquito born illnesses. But what can we do It's really all about buckspray and if you're me a lot of extra layers of clothes.

We don't have vaccine preventatives, and so the real way to intervene is to keep yourself from getting fed on by the mosquitos that can transmit the virus. Deet is tried and true and proven as a repellent for many many differ friend species, and in the testing they usually test against, you know, sort of a suite of three or four different kinds of mosquitoes.

I always thought that deep and bugspray and stuff like that, it was that when the bug lands on you, it's just like, oh, this is nasty. But she said it just can't recognize you as a food source, like it confuses them those chemicals.

Yeah, well it's a little bit. That's the that's the confusion, right, Oh, okay, it's confusing it so it doesn't say this is an attractive source that I should maybe try to bite.

And I know there are a lot of people who don't like it. You can find a lot of things on the internet about deet having adverse sort of side effects. I think the important thing is to use the EPA decision making tree to figure out which type of product works best for you.

Let's end you this text message about the article that show that. You know, people say deep is really harmful, so you shouldn't use it in high amounts. But me and my house we will stick to deep because mosquito have what's similar to taste receptors on their feet, so when they land, they taste the deep and it's like ugh, it's bitter, and they leave and they don't come back, and they don't. So they not only do they they land and leave right whereas other mosquito repellents don't have

Or bite Okay, I don't want you to touch me and I don't want you to bite me.

I want when you land on me. I wanted to be like landing on cement. You're saying nothing here, nothing to see here, and move along. And one of my favorite home remedies. All you entomologies out there, listen up. The kids got the cure. No, I'm not standing the care. I'm saying as an everyday person, and you're you know you have a backyard or you have a front yard, depending on where you live, if there is any standing

And what I just found out because of the stuff that doctor bartholow Me was saying, is that it's probably my compost bind that I have in the backyard that is attracting all of those mosquitos because they're getting nectar from the rotting fruits and veggies that I put in there. You put a lot of fruit in there, I do, And so maybe I need to get a different type of compost bin, one that's closed that I can use like a crank on the side to just rotate.

It and steal it off. And I feel like I just got.

A mosquito, but you probably did. It's probably mosquitos in the house.

They going to Daisy's bread. Daisy, close your mouth. Well, now I know what I need to do.

One thing that I know is that I'm probably always going to be bit by mosquitos. But my reaction to them will probably be different every year.

It's really interesting that the swell that we see and say, oh, this is a mosquito bite that's caused by the spit, not the action of them biting you.

So it's like the itching and the swelling and the warm feeling.

That's all a reaction. Do I need to take more? Benejo? You got a strong immune system? You said it. Your immune system is on overload. But now I'm gonna check your bug spray and make sure that it has deep Yeah, I definitely don't have deep buckspray. Girl. I think the really interesting thing for me was to learn all the stuff that scientists are doing and public health officials are

It's wild, and scientists are really doing a lot of important work out there, work that I didn't even know what's happening.

I'm glad it's happening, and it makes sense if we know that the mosquitos are laying eggs and standing water are an apex predator. You got to get them out of here.

And I think what was most interesting for me was learning, like, how many different types.

Of mosquitos are out there.

I had no idea that there were so many different types if you would ask me out said, they're probably two.

Oh my goodness.

Yeah, the ones that have betten me and the ones that have not been me. But it's so interesting to know that there are some mosquitos out there that really mean me no harm.

Yeah, so there's hope they won't bite you at all. You can come outside, Bubba Girl.

Don't forget to check out our website for a cheat sheet on today's episode. You can find it and sign up for our newsletter at Dope labspodcast dot com.

And keep calling us. We love hearing from you. What did you think about today's episode? Share your story with us. Our number is two zero two five six seven seven zero two eight. That's two zero two five six seven seven zero two eight.

You can find us on Twitter and Instagram at Dope Labs podcast.

Tt is on Twitter at d R Underscore t Sho, and you can find Zakia at z said So. And if you do love the show, don't forget to follow us on Spotify or wherever else you listen to podcasts.

Special thanks today to our guest doctor Lyric Bartholome. You can learn more about her and the show notes.

Our producer is Jenny Rattlup. Mass mixing and sound designed by Hannes Brown. Special thanks this week to Zoe Sullivan.

Original theme music by Takea Yasuzawa and Alex Sugi Eurra Additional music by Elijah Alex Harvey. Dope Labs is a production of Spotify Studios and Mega Owned Media Group, and it's executive produced by us T T show Dia.

And Zakiah Wattley. Narthur pod is an animal that's part of a larger group called arthur Potta and that includes insects, fighters, and crustaceans. And this is where I have my problem. Why are insects and spiders and crustaceans grouped together? Is a lobster a sea roach?

I think that that we can't say that a lobster is a sea roach.

We can't. You're right. I think a shrimp is a sea roach. That has to be the eastern end. Oh my gosh.