Mosquito Control & Mosquito-borne Disease

[AlohaSteven]

Fascinating. Finally, a WMD we can perhaps become enthusiastic about -and which might even actually soon exist.

'Star Wars' scientists create laser gun to kill mosquitoes
by Anouk Lorie for CNN Health & Science
http://www.cnn.com/2009/HEALTH/03/16/mos...index.html
-with photos.

LONDON, England -- Scientists in the U.S. are developing a laser gun that could kill millions of mosquitoes in minutes.

The laser, which has been dubbed a "weapon of mosquito destruction" fires at mosquitoes once it detects the audio frequency created by the beating of its wings.

The laser beam then destroys the mosquito, burning it on the spot.

Developed by some of the astrophysicists involved in what was known as the "Star Wars" anti-missile programs during the Cold War, the project is meant to prevent the spread of malaria.

Lead scientist on the project, Dr. Jordin Kare, told CNN that the laser would be able to sweep an area and "toast millions of mosquitoes in a few minutes."

Malaria is a life-threatening disease caused by parasites that are transmitted to people from the bites of female mosquitoes.

It is particularly prevalent in tropical and sub-tropical regions of the world and kills an African child every 30 seconds, according to the World Health Organization.

There are an estimated 300 million acute cases of malaria each year globally, resulting in more than one million deaths, the WHO reports.

Responding to questions about any potential harm the laser could pose to the eco-system, Kare said: "There is no such thing as a good mosquito, there's nothing that feeds exclusively on them. No one would miss mosquitoes," he said.

"In any case," he added. "The laser is able to distinguish between mosquitoes that go after people and those that aren't dangerous."

He added that other insects would not be affected by the laser's beam.

The research was commissioned by Intellectual Ventures, a Washington, U.S.-based company that was founded by Nathan Myhrvold, a former Microsoft Corporation executive.

His previous boss, Bill Gates, who funded the research, asked Myhrvold to look into new ways of combating malaria.

-------------------------------------------------------------

FAIR USE NOTICE: This post may contain copyrighted material. Such material is made available for educational purposes, to advance understanding of human rights, democracy, scientific, moral, ethical, and social justice issues, etc. This constitutes a ‘fair use’ of any such copyrighted material as provided for in Title 17 U.S.C. section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond ‘fair use,’ you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.

-------------------------------------------------------------

)'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'(

A pleasant slideshow: http://www.thejoymovie.com

)'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'(

[Andrew]

What an awesome invention. Can't wait till it is available here for rent or whatever.

Thanks for sharing this article Steven.

quote:

---

Originally posted by alaskasteven


LONDON, England -- Scientists in the U.S. are developing a laser gun that could kill millions of mosquitoes in minutes.

---

[Guest]

The safest, most ecological and most effective thing to date has been massive aerial dusting with DDT.
The banning of DDT based on bad science has been a boon the control of human population growth.
However this looks promising. http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk...908535.ece

[AlohaSteven]

The safest, most ecological and most effective thing to date has been massive aerial dusting with DDT.
The banning of DDT based on bad science has been a boon the control of human population growth.

esnap, could you please elaborate on the comments above?

My understanding is DDT is a persistent toxin in the environment with a cascade of unintended direct consequences ranging from eggshell thinning in birds to cancers in humans with a second set of unintended indirect consequences reverberating through food webs and also affecting humans (as via crop failure due to plagues of rats because the cats have died and thatched roofs collapsing in on farmers because of insect population explosions when their lizard predators are removed). I am not sure about the claim of bad science being behind the banning of DDT (nobody disputes DDT's efficacy as a toxin, just its routine use- DDT is the measure of last resort for use only in dire extremity of peril).

Perhaps I am not following your meaning at all in the last sentence of your comment; are you saying it was a boon to holding down human populations when DDT was banned because this absence of DDT control allowed mosquito-borne diseases to keep populations of humans in check? If so, then I wonder about that reasoning on a couple of different scores:
-while DDT was banned in the USA and Europe, corporate stockpiles were legally dumped on developing nations; use and even manufacturing there continued for a very long time ...with the main result of breeding DDT-resistant mosquito populations (and, ironically, sending DDT residues back to the USA and Europe on imported foods)
-while it is true humans will tend to imitate bacteria breeding on a Petri plate of nutrient agar and increase population in a locality on the J curve, speeding toward Malthusian doom, evidence also suggests the best way to halt human growth from radically exceeding carrying capacity and crashing subsequent to overshoot is not to have a chronic mosquito-borne disease problem afflicting the region (which just makes people strive to have yet more babies, so as to insure enough will survive to adulthood) but rather is to lower infant mortality rates (providing clean water and adequate prenatal/post-partum nutrition being key in this), increase female literacy and control over their own reproduction (as via education and access to contraception), and access to credit for building the infrastructure of local self-sufficiency in productive enterprises.

But perhaps I am way off course in accurately following what you are saying there?


)'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'(

A pleasant slideshow: http://www.thejoymovie.com

)'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'(

[JWFITZ]

Theres a place in the world for DDT, but a small one. God, it's effective. Eve spraying is supposedly good for a year for mosquitoes in the worst of places. I find that hard to believe, but so the WHO says.

My fishpond has all but eliminated the mosquito population. I might see one a week at this point.

[gtill]

I remember when they used to spray DDT behind a truck and trailrt, and the kids would all run behind it playing snowstorm. Overuse, and the beginning of the eco religion, Carson, "silent spring". A lot of the testing was crazy extreme (massive doses)etc.

After getting back out in a natural setting, most people get accustomed. I know where I live, the cold winters put the mosquito in some hibernation.

WHO recommends a light powder on the mosquito net when there are yanks around!

[Guest]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aSYla0y9Wcs


I would rather use ddt than risk my family to malaria.

However, we have to make up our minds, do we want to stop over population?

I mean don't you think it is paradoxical to want to stop the spread of disease, famine, pestilence and genocide, etc. while at the same time worry about the world being over populated and running out of resources.

[AlohaSteven]

Since folks are asking about Puna mosquito control and dengue fever, this is just to mention there is quite a bit on information shared on those tightly connected topics here in this discussion thread if the old posts are scanned through.


)'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'(

"Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passion, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence."

Pres. John Adams, Scholar and Statesman


"There's a scientific reason to be concerned and there's a scientific reason to push for action. But there's no scientific reason to despair."

NASA climate analyst Gavin Schmidt

)'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'(

[AlohaSteven]

In the "factors affecting seasonal density" and "control strategies" departments, here is an interesting mosquito news report from afar.

Swedish town overrun by mosquitoes
http://www.thelocal.se/20582/20090710/

Though the headline would suggest this is an isolated episode far removed from Hawaii the brief story strikes me as perhaps being instructive to Hawaii's situation in several regards.

For one, the article spotlights "use of the pesticide BTI Bioinsecticide." This is not a chemical agent like DDT but rather Bti (Bacillus thuringienis israelensis) is a bacterium, a biological agent that breaks down mosquito larvae's digestive tracks and prevents them from hatching. Many Hawaiians feel a strong reluctance to the use of chemicals like DDT, but Bti may be a more acceptable alternative if need for spraying became acute.

Another point this article perhaps suggests in a more subtle manner is how in some places normal seasonal events are happening in an unusually large way. An amplification of what is usual, to the point it is unusual. This is sometimes easier to see in the fragile arctic than elsewhere, yet Puna and the arctic tundra are intimately connected through the global climate system and biosphere. Alaska is currently experiencing a heat wave of such dry sunny weather (not a drop of rain in weeks, highly unusual, and temperatures in the 80s even on the normally cool and wet coastline) that not only are forest fires filling the skies with smoke but also overheated moose and their calves are in people's front yards standing for hours in the sprinklers. Yesterday I observed a cow moose grab a lawn sprinkler in her mouth and drink the water shooting directly into her mouth for several minutes at a stretch, repeatedly. Perhaps due to the lack of rainfall there are very few mosquitoes in Alaska this summer; many birds, bats, and other insects depend on mosquitoes for part of their diet. As with the mosquito population explosion in a Swedish locality, this is all unusual.

Expansion in mosquito population range, geographically, along with that of the diseases carried by mosquitoes has been anticipated to accompany climate changes. Apparently another aspect which may be anticipated might be unusually small and unusually large hatches of mosquitoes (depending in part on whether or not rainfall and temperature conditions have been conducive to such happening). These are all factors as relevant to Pahoa as to a small town in Sweden or Anchorage, Alaska, just perhaps easier to see in the latter at the moment.



)'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'(

It is not our part to master all the tides of the world but to do what is in us for the succor of those years wherein we are set, uprooting the evil in the fields we know, so that those who live after may have clean earth to till. What weather they shall have is not ours to rule.
J.R.R. Tolkien

)'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'(

[AlohaSteven]

Interesting. Turns out it is not only the carbon dioxide in our respiration which is attracting flying disease transmitters of genus Culex.

Researchers identify dominant chemical that attracts mosquitoes to humans. 28OCT2009.
http://labspaces.net/100370/Researchers_..._to_humans

This begs the question of whether Anopheles and Aedes respond similarly to nonanal.

Perhaps this research insight regarding nonanal can be leveraged into effective strategies against mosquitoes, both on Earth and Uranus. [Sorry, my inner seventh-grader could not resist.] Seriously, though, is it a Culex species which serves as a vector for avian malaria at lower elevations in Puna? I also wonder if birds produce nonanal as well as carbon dioxide -does anyone happen to know?


)'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'(

Nirvana vs Rick Astley
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NN75im_us4k

)'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'( )'(