Latest Mosquito Stories
Scientists working in a laboratory at Vanderbilt University have potentially discovered a class of insect repellent that is 1000 times more effective than DEET and works against all types of insects. "It wasn't something we set out to find," said David Rinker, a graduate student who performed the study in collaboration with graduate student Gregory Pask and post-doctoral fellow Patrick Jones. "It was an anomaly that we noticed in our tests." Reported in the online edition of the Proceedings...
--Fairy Tales Hair Care Offers Parents "Bug Bandit" to Repel Bugs Naturally-- Passaic, NJ (PRWEB) May 02, 2011 Spring has arrived and the mosquitoes are biting! Thanks to Fairy Tales Hair Care, parents can finally just say NO to DEET. Fairy Tale, makers of Rosemary Repel lice prevention and Sleep-Tite Bed Bug Spray has launched Bug Bandit to keep bugs at bay using all natural ingredients instead of pesticides or chemicals. Bug Bandit is a non-toxic, DEET & pesticide free...
Soyweet Relief Insect Spray from Soy of Life is an all natural insect spray that includes 10 different insect repelling essential oils, including Catnip which is said to be 10 times more effective than DEET. Plymouth, MA (PRWEB) April 27, 2011 Spring is finally here and Summer is just around the corner. That means the return of beautiful weather and staying outdoors longer for backyard bar-b-ques, boating, the beach or pool, golf as well as other sports and activities. It's the favorite...
Tender Corp. Launches Second Annual Natrapel® 8 Hour "˜Ditch the DEET' Photo Contest Top Prizes Include Vacations to New Hampshire's White Mountains Region, Plus Outdoor Gear from Eastern Mountain Sports® & Adventure® Medical Kits Littleton, NH (PRWEB) April 27, 2011 Tender Corp., a leading developer of skincare and first aid products designed for active lifestyles, today announced the official launch of the second annual "˜Ditch the DEET' online photo contest....
Scientists have developed a method of genetically manipulating large populations of mosquitoes, which could one day be used to significantly reduce the spread of the deadly malaria parasite to humans.The researchers found that after making specific genetic changes to a few mosquitoes, and then letting them breed, these genetic alterations could be spread through large mosquito populations in just a few generations.The system, known as a gene drive mechanism, was published online Wednesday in...
Scientists at Imperial College London and the University of Washington, Seattle, have taken an important step towards developing control measures for mosquitoes that transmit malariaScientists at Imperial College London and the University of Washington, Seattle, have taken an important step towards developing control measures for mosquitoes that transmit malaria. In today's study, published in Nature, researchers have demonstrated how some genetic changes can be introduced into large...
An international team of scientists published new research this week on the origins of flies and, and despite popular belief, the common ancestry house flies have with mosquitoes. Researchers, publishing a paper in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA, said the mosquito branched off the same evolutionary tree as the house fly about 220 million years ago, while the house fly branched off about 170 million years later. While only a few species of flies are commonly...
Proteins could be used to develop new approaches for regulating mosquito reproduction, feeding, and behaviorResearchers have identified 93 seminal fluid proteins and 52 sperm male-derived proteins that include candidates likely to affect the behavior and physiology of female mosquitoes of the species, Aedes aegypti. The results of this research, conducted by Laura Sirot (now at the College of Wooster) and fellow researchers in the labs of Laura Harrington and Mariana Wolfner at Cornell...
NIH-funded study finds way to reduce transmission of malaria to humansSpraying malaria-transmitting mosquitoes with a genetically modified fungus can kill the malaria parasite without harming the mosquito, potentially reducing malaria transmission to humans, according to a new study published in the journal Science. Funded by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health, the study was led by Raymond J. St. Leger, Ph.D., of the...
There are over 200 million cases of malaria each year and, according to the World Health Organisation, in 2009 malaria was responsible for 781,000 deaths worldwide. Malaria is spread by mosquitoes which breed in open water and spend much of their larval stage feeding on fungi and microorganisms at the water surface. New research published in BioMed Central's open access journal Parasites and Vectors presents a method of dispersing pathogenic fungi as a means of preventing the spread of...
Latest Mosquito Reference Libraries
Yellow fever is an acute viral hemorrhagic disease with a 40 to 50 nm enveloped RNA virus with positive sense of the Flaviviridae family. It is transmitted by the bite of female mosquitoes and is found in tropical and subtropical areas in South America and Africa, but not in Asia. Primates and a few kinds of mosquitoes are the only known hosts. The origin of the disease is most likely Africa. From there it was introduced to South America through the slave trade in the 16th century. There...
Aedes albopictus (Family Culicidae), the Asian Tiger Mosquito or Forest Day Mosquito, is characterized by its black and white striped legs and small, black and white body. It was native to south-east Asia, and occupied a habitat that spread from Madagascar eastward to New Guinea, and north to the latitude of Korea. The typical member of the Aedes albopictus has a length of about 5 mm. As with other members of the mosquito family, the female is outfitted with an elongated proboscis that she...
The crane flies (Tipulidae) are a family of insects that closely resemble giant mosquitoes. Like the mosquito, they are in the order Diptera (flies) and are sometimes called mosquito eaters, mosquito hawks, or skeeter eaters. They are also one of three unrelated arthropods named Daddy long-legs. The other two are the harvestmen and vibrating, cellar or house spider. As such, Crane Flies are wrapped up in the myth of being the most poisonous spider, but unable to bite humans. This is...
The mosquito is a member of the family Culicidae. These insects have a pair of scaled wings, a pair of halteres, a slender body, and long legs. Only the females of most mosquito species suck blood from other animals. Size varies but is rarely greater than 0.6 inch (15 mm). Mosquitoes weigh only about 0.03 to 0.04 grain (2 to 2.5 mg). They can fly at about 0.9 to 1.6 mph (1.5 to 2.5 km/h) and most species are nocturnal. Mosquitoes are believed to have evolved 170 million years ago during...
