Mosquitoes: The Worst

as well. Okay to Twitter and Facebook. Yeah, look up that s y s K podcast. That's right. You know a lot of people if you go to iTunes to uh listen to our show, you might think, man, these three hundred episodes are awesome. I love these guys. Here's a fact for you. We have close to seven fifty or more? Is it more now? I think we'll be right at it, right at seven fifty right now? That's right. So you were getting really short changed. So all you need to do is go to stuffy sho dot com.

We have our entire podcast archives. Yeah. I think it's stuffy dot com slash podcast slash archives something like that. Yeah, you should go listen to the early episodes when we just rambled on about nothing for five minutes at the beginning of every show before we got tight and professional bam, tight as a drum. Mosquitoes go, I hate them. Who doesn't,

I mean, everybody hates mosquitoes. And I was thinking, well, like, it's kind of I understand, Like mosquitoes need some blood to go procreate, So what's the big deal if they take a little of your blood and go lay some eggs, And it's fine, It's part of the circle of life. And then I remembered how many mosquitoes need your blood, and that how much disease mosquitoes carry their disease vector. Yeah, and a pretty good one too. I'm one of those people that, um, they flocked to. Oh yeah, you know.

My mom used to say it's because I was sweet, But what she really meant was, it's because you're a sweaty monster. It's because you probably admit a lot of no nonnal the hide. I admit a lot of everything. Well, you definitely do no nonal the hide. What I don't Why can I say that non nonal Your eyes just roll back. I mean it's spelled you can pronounce it however, you like n O, n A n A L. But it's a an oil that mosquitoes are bonkers for it.

I must have it in spades, chuck is half that none at all bam, and then it's technically non an all the hide. I was just inhabited by a spirit that can really say some words. He's gone, all right. Mosquito, buddy, is Spanish for a little fly or a little gnat or a little nat. Yeah. I think in Europe they called them nat or maybe still calling that, right, I think, so are they not on the mosquito train? I don't know. I haven't asked somebody from Europe. Let us know, let

us know what you call mosquitoes. That's right. And the use of the word mosquito dates back to about fifteen eighty three in North America, which is weird that they can they can trace the etymology back to that. But I saw no sourcing, no like, oh, well it was Vasco de Gama or something like that who said mosquito. It's a little that let's call him that. No idea where it came from. But I've seen it as honed as fifteen eighty three. Yeah, that sounds made up maybe

online etymology dictionary is usually pretty some point. And they said fifteen eighties but had no attribution. Really interesting, Well, they've been around for thirty million years no more. Yes, well I figured at least thirty million. The oldest fossilized blood that's ever been found was found and I think wyoming in a mosquito, know that was forty six million years old? Was that one in amber? And did they

extract it's DNA to make dinosaurs? It was in grant it but it was still colored so you could see the blood it was. It's crazy. It's intact like it went and eight and I was like, oh, something killed me. Now I'm fossilized to the blood of tuk Tuk. By the way, you go listen to a fossils episode. That is fascinating stuff. It is a good one, agreed, sir. So. Mosquitoes, um, they like to drink your blood, which we'll get into later, but they do this that makes them, by the way,

hematophogic and jerks one of those too. Yeah, It's there's nothing creepier than being on your deck and seeing a brand new mosquito land on you and you smash it and there's a lot of blood already there, and you know it's not yours. You know it's not yours because to you it's brand new. You're covered in your neighbor's blood. Guy down the street, who knows, and who knows what's in that blood, which is why mosquitoes are disease vectors. That's right. So they're going to find you and attack

you by using UM. And I like how this article puts it. It sounds more like a military aircraft than an insect because all these sensors, they have chemical sensors. They can sniff out that carbon dioxide and lactic acid up to a hundred feet away. Yes, and if you're breathing, you're giving that junk out. Well, yeah, U xhale c

O two and mosquitoes hone in on that. They actually have a neuron receptor that's designed to accept c O two and say, oh, well, there's a bunch of CEO two over here, I'm gonna go attack whatever it's coming out of. There's a blood meal waiting to happen, exactly. And so they trek CEO two. They trek not analde hyde. I got it um and other stuff too. It comes out of you, lactic acid in your sweat. They track that too, so very much the way that we smell things,

or taste things, or see things or hear things. Mosquitoes sense CEO two and other volatile compounds that humans and other warm blooded animals emit. Yeah, they actually have visual sensors as well. So, um, if you're in the green woods and you're wearing a white T shirt, if it contrasts heavily with the background, you're gonna stand out. You want to wear camouflage clothing at all times, all all the time, even when you're not in the woods, just

to show off to others. And that movement if you if you're moving around, if you're doing a dance out in the woods with your white uh frock, you're gonna get attacked because you can be sweaty too. If you're at if you're a member of the Polyphonic Spree at a show in the woods, you're getting bit by a mosquito. That's right. Uh And what else? Heat sensors, This one is pretty unbelievable. They actually can detect heat infrared like the predator. Yes, they are basically like the predator. So

you want to talk about body Parts. Yeah, Tommy, I mean we kind of have to, you know. Oh, I'm sorry it was Joey was an airplane, right, Yeah, it was Joey. I saw that about half of that the other night for the first time, and forever it's I could watch it every week. It's so classic. And Emily wasn't laughing. I was like, this is not your bag as it and she said I laughed a lot when I saw it when I was twelve. She didn't like it anymore. I didn't hold up. She's not a big

fan of the Absurdist. That's the shame. It's a good movie still. Yeah, Like I haven't seen their plane two him forever, but I'm quite sure it's still pretty good. Joey, you ever been to a Turkish prison? It's so wrong. You couldn't even make that joke today, you know. It's like, write a pedophile joke into your new comedy. And she quickly that kid's like, why don't we just take that out?

It sound funny. You're coming out of ruper at Everett. Um, alright, so body parts, Um, you have your head and that's where all these lovely sensors are that we talked about the chemical, visual and heat sensors, and the biting apparatus. Yeah, which the probiscus, depending on whether it's a male or female. You know, it's longstanding. What you would think is a myth of some sort that it's just females that um bite female mosquios. It's absolutely true. The men are just

like little hippies eating flower nectar. They don't bite. They don't they're not even equipped to bite. Nope, they're incapable of biting you. So if you're ever bitten or stung whatever you want to call it by a mosquito, that's a lady. It is a lady, although she's not acting very ladylike. Blood meals aren't very lady like. No, she's

like the bride, that's right. Uh. You're also going to find two compound eyes, um, some antennae, and then the mouth parts which we just mentioned the probiscus mouth and part for the lady. Just call it a mouth mouthparts so gross, yeah, but I get it, it's science. Uh. And then the palp us is another mouth part, another disturbing word, thorax. That's the body segment where the wings and legs are attached. Yes, all this makes it an insect has two wings and six legs. Yeah, attached to

a thorax. That's an insect, buddy, that's right. They actually have a heart, little compound heart in that thorax. And then they have their abdomen, which is where they store the digestive organs and that's where the poops from. Yeah, and that's where the blood is to I imagine, right, Yeah, where their blood meals stored blood meals really gross it is. That was from what the flea episode, ticks and fleas

and yeah, anything that needs a blood meal, no, thank you. Uh. Species of mosquitoes all over the world in about thirteen genera right here in the US. And Chuck, there's actually three, the Big three is what they call them. Well, that's what I call them, the bigg Jordan's Magic Johnson, Larry Bird. You wouldn't include Lebron in that list, not yet, I think already. He just surpassed like Jordan and two other guys I think last night. Instead, he needs to win

some more championships before he's on that list. Jordan half, he went like seven or six. Yeah, I hear that. I see your point. Lebron's got time though, So that yeah he does. Jordan doesn't. No, Jordan's time is up, he's finished. Um, sorry, Michael Jordan. We still think very highly of you. He's gonna have someone he's gonna put out a hit on both of us. Um, you know, we we saw his plane once at a p DK airport. Had to have been his plane his because it said

air Jordan's. It had the air Jordan's logo. But in North Carolina blue, We're like, pretty sure that's Michael Jordan's airplane. And it was nice. That's awesome. I wouldn't saw him play baseball. When he played minor league baseball. Oh yeah, it was pretty neat. He wasn't very good. No, he went over four, but um, it was just neat. You know. Sure to see Jordan's absolutely went over to Birmingham, Alabama. Oh yeah, that's we played for them. Were the feeder

team for the White Sox. Uh yeah, I think so. It shows how hard baseball is. You know, he's like one of the greatest athletes of all time and he cont a curveball. Yeah. Um, all right, I was talking about the Big Three and you facetiously pretended I was talking about basketball players, But now I was talking about the big three species of mosquitoes that afflict the US.

All right, so break it down for me. What are they aidis floodwater mosquitoes, right, yeah, and um, those include the yellow fever mosquito, which basically does what it says on the tin, spreads yellow fever. That's right, as advertised. Um. And the Asian tiger mosquito, which I think is probably my favorite mosquito. It's just because of how it looks. Uh really they just look compact and striped and just like little sleek meant for business. Yes. Um. The second one is all the n O n O felis and

they breed in permanent fresh water. And uh, the malaria mosquito is a member of that one, so that's not that's when you want to avoid as well. Yeah, no good. And then lastly there's q lex or selex. I think it's q lex. Yeah, that's what I would say, c U L e X. And they breed in um quiet standing water, water that's entered introspective repose, you know, like the stuff that builds up in like an old tire or something like that. Yeah, they sound like the dumbad.

What the standing water like in an old tire in your yard, because that's going to breed the heck out of some mosquitoes, especially sue lex or culex. They sound like kind of the dummies of the mosquito world. They only live for a few weeks in the summer. And um, I think these are the ones that attack me most in Georgia. I'm not mistaken. They're weak flyers, is what

it says. So yeah, and you can imagine those ones that kind of like come at you like I can't land very well, I just need to bump into you with my probiscus um. But they actually the culex prefer birds over humans, kind of like that weasel jumping on the back of the woodpecker. That's right, I just saw. God I feel terrible when I think about a bird being bitten by mosquitoes and not having an arm, just a hand to smack it. Yeah, you know, I do

the same thing when they're around my animals too, smack them. Oh, I just I don't like it. Oh No one eats the blood meal off of my dog except me. All right, how about we go splash our faces down with some aqua velva and continue talking about the life cycle After this all right. We mentioned that mosquitoes were insects, and that means that they hatched from eggs. That's right. Like all insects, they could also be precocial birds, but in

this case they're not. They're insects. The females are gonna lay their eggs in that water, Um, than the larva and pupa stages are going to live in that water. Pup potentially change into adults. Um, they leave the water and they become the annoying pests that you hate so much. Yeah, and I didn't realize this, but mosquitoes they can live from a few days to several weeks, depending on the species,

depending on the environmental conditions. And I would have thought that the they live a shorter period in colder weather, but actually the opposite is true. They hunker down. Yeah, they a female can stay alive in a cool, damp spot over the wintering months until spring comes around. You can get a blood meal and and lay some eggs, which is why she she needs your blood. You have proteins in your blood that she needs and she needs

it to lay some eggs. So let's say she's got a blood meal, right, she's stuck you and she goes and she lays some eggs, and she's going to lay them in water. And again, depending on the species, different types of water are gonna attract them. Like eighties, which is a very tough word to say, it's almost all vowels um. They're going to lay their eggs in a place that will eventually water will come in contact with it and carry them away other than directly into water.

If you've ever seen the standing water, like in that old tire in your backyard, and you see a little grouping of little white uh, looks like a lot of little eggs floating together, those are mosquito. Those are eggs floating together. That's exactly what they are. Exactly. They're sort of laid there in a group. And I think you said this, but it's one blood meal per hatch her egg laying. Yeah, anytime they want to lay eggs, they have to drink that blood meal. And is that the

only reason they drink the blood meal? That's all That's what I saw. Yeah, So when you have a mosquito biting you, that means that they have eggs that they're ready to hatch. Yeah, so when you're killing that mosquito, you're actually even better killing all of its future. Ye, well, that makes me feel even better. So um, and then you can also apparently you can tell what kind of

mosquito species is. Um, you're looking at based on what hatches out of the eggs the larva, because the eggs hatch and live, they spend the larval stage in the pupil stage in water. I think like you said, that's right. The larva are also called wigglers and um, if you've ever seen that same group of eggs look like teeny tiny, tiny little worms, that's the larva. Yeah, and so um and awfully's larva will be parallel to the surface of the water, like almost like floating right below it or

on the water surface. And then eight s and q lex extend down into the water and they breathe through air tubes like um bugs bunny using a read like a bamboo read. Um, they're going to the larbarre gonna malt, which is shedding their skin a few times. And I believe that's on that fourth malt is when they become real, is that right? No, they become pupa Okay, they become the pupi pupie or tumblers is what they're called and basically they stop eating and they get ready to spin

a sort of cocoon of sorts around themselves. Although they're not spinning, they're enclosing themselves. And then they go in and they turn into adults. They grow their wings, their legs grow out, their probiscus grows out. If they're the hippie male version, their hair grows out down to their shoulders. They actually bust out of that case with air pressure. Yeah, and I looked this up. This article makes it's it makes appearances all for the Internet in various forms, like

it has been ripped off plenty of times. And I can't find anybody who's like and this is how. This is how they use their pressure to break open the cocoon. I have no idea. The only thing I can think of is that they flap their wings enough that it increases the air pressure inside of the enclosure and it breaks open. Oh see, I was gonna say they blow it out their probiscus or something. But what if it's

a male like they don't have a probiscus. They can blow it out mouth parts, they can blow it through their mouthparts. No, I don't know. Yeah, I mean that's that's is a legitimate and suggestion is mine or maybe science got to that point and they're like who cares, Yeah, just kill you know. Uh. When mosquitoes finally do spread their wings and fly um like beautiful doves, they want to go out and like most animals, find a mate and mate so to make more of themselves. That's right,

it's like their job basically. And so the males they're just sitting there feeding on plant nectar and they're like me, me, okay, me, yeah, you great, And the females like, yes, um, let's do this. And then I'm gonna go get a blood meal and you go off and die and then I'll die later on. Yeah. Pretty much not a lot of purpose to the mosquito's life. Well, we'll talk about that a little bit later. Um about whether or not we even need mosquitoes. Oh good, I

would love to talk about that, Okay, but not right now. UM, let's talk about the bites. When they bite you with that probiscus um, they actually have an anti coagulant, a protein in the saliva that they're gonna spit out on you, and it's gonna keep keep that blood free. Flowing while they're sucking it up exactly. Um, a female mosquito will

eat until she's full. And apparently if you cut the sensory nerve to her abdomen and cut off her indicator that she is full, she just eating until she exploded. Like that's what the sadist with too much time on his hands does in very tiny tools. Yeah, he captures some cs severs that thing so they can gorge themselves. Like here here's an arm go to town. Could you imagine seeing that? O? My god, I kind of have

seen it. There was a Tabasco commercial from years ago where like this kind of Cajun dude is eating pizza with Tabasco on it, remember, and then like a mosquito comes and like sucks his blood and flies off and it's flying away and explodes in flames. So you have seen it kind of on TV. That's very nice. Um, After you get bitten, the saliba is what causes that immune response that you know as the bumpy itch, but science calls it a wheel w H E A L. Yeah,

that's the puffy area around the little center prick part. Yeah, and that's your body's immune response being mounted against that anticoagulant saliva that remains after the mosquitos flown off UM, and the wheel will eventually get better and go away, but the itch will remain. And the itch is an indicator that your white blood cells are still fighting off

or breaking down that protein in the anticoagulant saliva. UM. Have you ever heard the old wives tale that if you put an X or cross with your fingernail, it won't itch. M No, you never heard that. That was a big, like childhood thing, like if you cross make an X on the mosquito bite with your fingernail really deeply, it won't itch anymore. And it always seemed to work. And I looked that up and it's actually a thing.

Researchers at the American Allergy Institute UM released findings about four years ago that UH said that's actually an effective technique, and they set it outproof form. They did studies on several hundred people and outperformed any anti itch remedies like over the counter stuff that you could put on it, and they they reckon that it works because UM it limits the immune response from the binding of antibodies to antigens in the saliva. Basically, it just digs deep and

disrupts that. So there you have it. Apparently it's true bold vives right again. That's right, Um, so chuck. In addition to having an itch from a bite and having the anticoagulant protein from the mosquito saliva stuck in your skin, it gets way worse than that as far as mosquitoes go. Mosquitoes, like I said, and I said it before and I'll say it again, mosquitoes are a disease vector to the nth degree and one of the things that they're very

famous for spreading. As a matter of fact, as we saw, there's a mosquito species that included a type called the malaria s. Mosquito is malaria, and malaria is a viral infection. No, I'm sorry, it's a parasite that you catch from the anopolies mosquito. And it takes anywhere from a few days to a few months for symptoms to develop as the infection grows in your bloodstream. And um, you're in big trouble. Yeah, you're gonna be headachy and muscle achy and feverish and chili. Uh.

It can kill you. Um. But they do have anti malarial drugs and I think that's one of those you can get not a vaccine, but can't you take drugs before you go on a trip like that? Malaria? Yeah? And um, you can drink gin and tonics, which originally developed by the British when they took over India. Um, and we're exposed to malaria. Really. Yeah. Tonic water contains quinine, which is found in the bark of the chichon a tree, a k a. The fever tree. And um, it's been

like it cures and prevents malaria. So they would drink gin, which they already had on them all the time, and this tonic water. And then apparently tonic water was even more bitter back in the day than it is today, so they would add something like lime or cucumber or something like that. But lime had the added benefit of chasing off scurvy as well or preventing scurvy. So the average safe sailor in the British navy in the mid eighteenth cent or nineteenth century had a supply of gin,

tonic water, and limes. Put them all together, you got a gin and tonic and you're preventing malaria or preventing mesquite stead and ward off mosquitoes, does it. No, it prevents malaria, like I guess, it prevents the parasite from spreading in your body's something like the chinchona. The quinine prevents the parasite from taking hold. Well, I guess I'm safe. Then you're safe. But apparently a one million and people

die every year still from malaria. Unbelievable. It's that's inexcusable in this day and age, with the ubiquity of malarial drugs in the West. Agreed, it's like share the wealth. Yeah, a million people a year from malaria, that's really sad. It is. Um yellow fever is another big problem. We don't have it here in the U. S Or Europe anymore, but it is still all over the place in South

America and Africa. And it's sort of symptomatic like malaria, worse except worse but um nausea, vomiting, jaundice, and it can also kill you. Yes, they can't treat. They treat the symptoms, but there is no like cure, right, yeah, the only and there's no cure and the only prevention really is to prevent mosquitoes from biting you, which is a tall order. I imagine in parts of South America. Yeah. Yeah, then there's encephalitis and the most famous of the encephalitis

that's spread viral and scephalitis that's spread by mosquitoes. West Nile virus. Yeah, I thought this is interesting. It said several types include Western Equine, Eastern Equine, West Nile, and St. Louis. Yeah, just sort of stood out as odd to me. Uh, you will get a high fever, stiff neck, headache, confusion, laziness, sleepiness. Um, I might have West actually, And now that I think about it, um, And we'll talk a little more about West.

Now when we talk about mosquito repellents, there's a couple more that mosquitoes are well known for spreading dan gay fever spread by my favorite the Asian tiger mosquito that produces everything from viral flu to hemorrhagic fever. Apparently it was it just mainly stuck around East Asia and then in it made its first appearance in the United States, introducing ding gay fever in the US. And the worms too. They spread worms, specifically types of worms that like to

root into your eye and make you blind. Wow. Yeah, they're they're diseased actors. HIV is not spread by mosquitoes. Everybody knows this by now, but um, don't you remember being a kid though and being like, oh god, yeah, I remember growing up in that generation thinking wait a minute. And I didn't even see it on the news or as a concern, Like I remember having my own original thought of hold on a minute, if you can get HIV through blood and mosquitoes, or that's not my blood,

and it's like a little needle, I know. I was. Actually it was like someone's gonna get this and things are gonna change. But luckily, thankfully, they found out that uh, the virus cannot survive in a mosquito. No, apparently it's really it has a lot of trouble surviving outside of its human host. It just doesn't live very long. Yeah, we really need to do an HIV I know, it's been long. Promise we will. We will do that very soon. So, Chuck,

we talked about all this stuff. Mosquitoes can spread and UM, a lot of these things like UM yellow fever, uh in West Nile virus. They're they're difficult to treat and the best thing you can do is to prevent mosquitoes from biting you. And actually I mentioned what was it Dengey fever that made its appearance in the United States in I don't know if you remember this or whatever, there was a panic all of a sudden in New York State. I think something like five or six people.

Um seven people died in just over a month from September to October of and they died of an in viral encephalitis, right, And the health officials were like, what is going on? And they couldn't find anything in common with these people. They there was no normal um epidemiological marks, right, They just couldn't figure out where it's coming from. And then they finally identified it as West Nile virus that

was being carried by mosquitoes, and everybody freaked out. Part of the problem with this was that at the time, a lot of people were suddenly questioning what we were using as mosquito repellent, which is also called deep That was the primary mosquito repellent that was in use and still is today. And at the time people were just starting to question because there are a lot of studies about whether deet was safe, specifically for pregnant ladies and um kids. Yeah, do you want to read the word

that is deep? Sure? All right, go ahead, and and di ethel m tulum medea to lua Mede's almost had it, man, try it again, and and di ethel m to luamde. Yeah, I think that's exactly right, my friend. Which is Deep somehow, that's what it's abbreviated, asked, Yeah, d E E T. And it was created by the U. S. D a H. The Department of Agriculture in ninety six, of course for the Army's a military thing, like so many things created and and um. Eventually it made its way over to

consumers in the nineteen fifties. And like you said, over the years it's been sort of uh maligned and embraced, um like a roller coaster, you know. But in the in the height of this West Nile panic, it was also like the it was the height of or the bottom of faith. Indeed, as a safe thing, a safe product. That was Deep's lowest day. Yes, it's the dark day. So um. One of the reasons that people were suspicious of Deep is that it's a plasticizer, which means it

can melt plastic. Yea, that's one thing. So that's enough for me, So spray that on your skin, um, and then there was a study of UH in two thousand two of about nine pregnant women in Thailand, and it investigated their bloodstream for DEEP. And the thing is with Deep, when you put it on your skin, most of the time you're it's absorbed at a rate that your liver can break it down, and when you finally pee it out, it's been completely metabolized and it's safe if I guess right,

that's what they say. Well, this study in Thailand showed, it showed something different, and it scared everybody. Yeah, it showed that, Um, they actually found the chemical in the umbilical cord of eight percent of the women, so that across the placental barrier, and that freaked people out so understandably, right, that spread like wildfire. Everybody was freaked out about Deep. And then simultaneously there there were long standing reports of

children having seizures from using Deep. Is that true? I can't quite tell. What I get is if you use Deep in normal concentrations on your skin, which they say it used to be, But then they found that anything over fifty is really about the same, right, Yeah, it's diminished return. So you want to just use fifty or no more than fifty and when they figured that out, they just dropped it down to thirty. They rounded down for some reason. Um, but apparently, if you use it

in a normal concentration on your skin, um you're okay. Allegedly, and a bunch of different groups have come out and said, deets, okay, as long as you follow the label and you're using a normal concentration. If you get in your mouth, for example, though then all of a sudden, the concentrations are hundreds of times higher than if it's on your skin. So these kids licking their arms and stuff. Supposedly that was the common link to the seizures and kids, but apparently

it was never demonstrated to everyone's satisfaction. And some people are like, well, seizures are way more common in children than in an adults, so maybe it's just a coincidence that these kids also had bugs bray on at the time they have their seizure. I don't I try not to use the no And you are one of enough people that there's a pretty decent market for alternatives, a deep for mosquito repellents that have been developed over the years. That's what I usually do. What do you use? Oh?

I mean back in the day, use the the old skin so soft, which, yeah, I don't know, maybe it worked a little bit. Well, you know what's funny is like this whole deep scare people started asking questions about and they're like, well, how does it work? And apparently scientists were they had to say, like, we're not. I'm sure we think that it confuses the the um it masks the c O two that's omitted by humans. Interesting,

So that's what they think. They've also found that since DEED is really effective at doing that, they found other compounds too that do similar things that that fit a CEO two receptor or a non all in all receptor. And um, so the mosquitoes confused and doesn't know where to bite or sting or whatever. Um. I think uh, Emily made a little homemade concoction once. I think out of that lemon eucalyptus oil that you mentioned in your own article. Yes, that's that's one lemon eucalyptus oil. Um,

there's soybean oil. Yeah, that's supposed to work pretty good, right. Supposedly, a two percent concentration of soybean oil prevents mosquitoes from biting between one and a half and seven hours. That's pretty great. And this is soybean oil. This is the same stuff you can like eat in your food, so it's very safe. What about citranilla oil, because Jerry came in here bragging about all her citranilla oil plants that

she has surrounded her lavish gardens. Jerry was wrong. So the citranilla oil apparently does kind of work, but it works way better if you extract the active ingredients gerenniol. So if you've got the the citranilla torches, uh, then that's doing a better job than just having the plant around her. I would guess if anything, that's probably attracting them through the heat. Oh, attracting them, I would guess. But see, I think the smoke helps get rid of them.

So there's two things you can do with mosquitoes, right. You can protect yourself by masking yourself like the from this the volatile compounds that you're emitting, right, and then you can also distract and bait them. And they they somebody did a study in two thousand thirteen at u C Riverside. They analyzed half a million compounds that had a structure that fit mosquito ceo two receptors, and they found a hundred and thirty eight that we're safe fish,

and they zoned in on two of them. One is ethel Pyra eight, which has a fruity smell that humans find pleasant and testing it's safe for use in foods and um. It apparently masks the skin as well as deep does. And then there's also cyclopentanone, which has a minty smell that attracts mosquitoes that you could use for like a trap. Did you put like in the back of your yard right? I will say this the you know, they make a lot of things like mosquito traps, um

bug zappers, which do not work. Uh. If you have a bug zapper, all you're doing is killing a lot of like really cool insects, you know, like moths and things. Um. Those things that you hook up to like a tank and roll out into your yard. I don't think those are supposed to work very well. It's like propane. I don't know what it is. I've seen it before, though, Okay, I don't think it's propane. UM. I'll have to look

into that, but I've heard they don't work. Do you remember that, UM, Like years back, it was kind of a trend among UM radio stations. They said that they were playing a low frequency sound that mosquitoes that humans couldn't hear, but repelled mosquito that why, just to listen to their stations. I don't know if it was actually transmitted or if it was just a hoax. It sounds like a hoax to me. So you said you had something about mosquitoes and whether we actually need them or not, right, Yeah,

but real quickly. They also make um mosquito proof clothing where this this they're iron suits, you know, but chemicals are actually in in the fabric itself to ward off mosquitoes. I remember I wrote something about that at one point, and I just remember thinking, I'm never gonna buy something like this and wash them with my regular clothes. Maybe I'm an alarmist. Supposedly there's um there's a chemical that is just to be used on your clothing, not your skin.

Why is because it's a deadly, deadly poisoned neurotoxin to humans. Yeah, that is we should actually say the name of that permethrin. Yeah, that is for clothing only. And um, if I see something like that, I'm just not gonna use it, Like, don't get any on your skin, but you can put it on your T shirt just fine, and don't look

at happy fun ball. Uh. So we have another article on our website called what if mosquitoes went It's ext inked because apparently there are some scientists that have been investigating, like how to increase the male population enough that there just aren't females anymore. Uh, and you know, no more offspring. And there's a few things. There are some birds in the Arctic tundra that you know, migrate and feed on mosquito,

so it could disrupt that. And then of course the whole chain reaction thing that we've talked about before in the food chain. You know what could that mean? Um? There there's actual mosquito fish and an other fish feed on mosquitoes and their larvae. Um. But the general consensus from sciences, you know, if mosquitoes went away, they'd probably just adapt and find other meals and it wouldn't set

off some awful reaction like bees would. You know, Well, we could use this as proof positive once and for all that humans are capable or never ever should intervene in ecology and ecological stuff. Let's let's do it. Let's see if we can remove mosquitoes from the planet. You know, there's not I was waiting for some big thing like mosquitoes are really so important, but not really. Nope, like

the animals, they'll just those fish. The mosquito fish, I guess, will be the the whatever, the gnatfish or the fly fish. It's the like fly larva more. Anyway, I don't care. Yeah, I'd say that's worthy of an experiment. Let's get rid of it. I have feel not bad at all about saying that. Uh well, if you want to know more about mosquitoes, you're born enemy. You can type that word into the search part how stuff works dot Com. And since I said search parts, it's time for listener mail.

I am going to call this one. What what is this? Oh my, I'm gonna call this I I see dead people. Um guys, I've been listening to your awesome show for about a year, and I'm working my way through the back catalog. Last week I listened to you How Stunt Men and Stunt Women Works. Great episode, Chuck mentioned the Vic Morrow helicopter accident from the Twilight Zone, and uh, I said it was actually on YouTube, which is something I never knew. Despite the warning from Chuck not to watch.

I did it. Next time, I'll listen. It is rough. One thing I did learn, though, from the accident was um the subsequent research on it was that John Landis directed that segment, which I knew because he brought on charges. Um. This brings me to the reason I'm writing. I met John land Is, said a couple of years ago at the Burbank Airport. He was really friendly and jovial and

took a picture with my friend. Uh. In my opinion, in the opinion of many others, by the way landis Is actions heavily contributed to the tragic deaths of Vic Morrow and the two children. Despite living in l A and working in the entertainment industry, I really don't meet any many celebrities and consider life to be easier because

of it. However, other celebrities I have met included Aaron Hernandez, who's the New England Patriot that's in for murdering now and Ray Lewis, who was acquitted of murder back in the day. Uh. And while I didn't officially meet him, Charles S. Dutton was in my office once and we exchanged the polite nod. So when you add them all up. The celebrities I personally encountered range from definitely to possibility possibly responsible for nine violent deaths. Wow, how about that?

Jeez um, Charles Dutton, did he got somebody? Yeah, he spent like his youth in prison. Oh that's right, he went to prison and got out and became famous. Okay, I've learned a great deal from your podcast over the year that I've been listening, and now I have learned that for my own safety and for the betterment of humanity in general, my celebrity interactions must be kept to a minimum. I know. For legal reasons, this email will never make it a listener mail reverse psychology, I got

that kind of always works. Actually, I don't see what the legal reasons are. Nothing. This guy's like signed a lawyer inflammatory in here and that is from name redacted. M thank your name redacted. You have an unusual name. Yeah. He also goes by anonymous. Oh or yeah, Detroit. That's right, that's what we should use as a name redacted or anonymous, Yeah Detroit. All right, So thank you, yeah Detroit for that email. Way to go you had, Detroit. If you want to get in touch with us and let us

know any weird stuff about yourself that's pretty cool. Um. You can tweet to us at s y s K podcast. You can join us on Facebook dot com, slash Stuff you Should Know. You can send us an email to Stuff Podcast at Housetuff works dot com and has always joined us at at home on the web, Stuff you Should Know dot com For more on this and thousands of other topics, does it how stuff works dot com