Ologies with Alie Ward - Culicidology (MOSQUITOES) Part 1 with Fhallon Ware-Gilmore

Episode Date: June 5, 2024

They’re gorgeous. They’re picky moms, and tremendous flirts. They are sparkly. And they drink blood. We hopped on the line with mosquito researcher, medical entomologist, CDC Epidemic Intelligence Service officers, and Culicidologist, Dr. Fhallon Ware-Gilmore to chat about mozzies. Why do skeeters bite you, specifically? Which ones should we watch out for? Why do they make high-pitched sounds? WHAT DO THEIR HELL MOUTHS LOOK LIKE? And how can I learn to love them? But also, how can I keep them away from me? Scream in your date's face and drink blood, if you’re a mosquito, because things are about to heat up. Next week: we’ll cover diseases and repellents, just for you. Follow Dr. Ware-Gilmore on Google Scholar and XA donation went to Malaria No MoreMore episode sources and linksSmologies (short, classroom-safe) episodesOther episodes you may enjoy: Entomology (INSECTS), Dipterology (FLIES), Acaropathology (TICKS & LYME DISEASE), Spheksology (WASPS), Melittology (BEES), Native Melittology (INDIGENOUS BEES), Environmental Toxicology (POISONS)Sponsors of OlogiesTranscripts and bleeped episodesBecome a patron of Ologies for as little as a buck a monthOlogiesMerch.com has hats, shirts, hoodies, totes!Follow @Ologies on Instagram and XFollow @AlieWard on Instagram and XEditing by Mercedes Maitland of Maitland Audio Productions and Jacob ChaffeeManaging Director: Susan HaleScheduling Producer: Noel DilworthTranscripts by Aveline Malek Website by Kelly R. DwyerTheme song by Nick Thorburn

Oh hey, it's the day drunk lady who loves your perfume. Allie Ward back with the episode, You Don't Wanna Want, but You Know That You Need It. You're just itching for it. Listen, a few things I know about you, alright? You hate mosquitoes? You wanna try to appreciate literally one thing about them if you can, also you wanna kill them.

We got you. So I have waited four years to have this very specific guest on. Ever since we had her on the black AF and STEM episode In the year of our lockdown 2020. Let's revisit it. Did you know that mosquito is Spanish for little fly? So despite my nudging and begging her every spring to talk mosquitoes She has been a bit tied up becoming dr Mazzi and is now working in a postdoc for the US Centers for Disease

Control. For years, I've been like, whenever you're ready, I have two mics, I got a million questions. That time is now, which we will get to. But first, just quick thanks to everyone who sends those questions in via patreon.com slash Ologies. You can become a patron for as little as a buck a month. Thank you to everyone out there getting bitten in our Allogy's merch from allogysmurch.com where we have also a tick shirt that boldly reads, check your crevices. We also have swimsuits

you can put on your body. Thank you to everyone who is listening to our spin-off show, Smology's, which just a few weeks ago launched as its own show in its own feed. Look for this colorful new logo with a bird and a frog. That show Smologies is in your podcast app or at the link in the show notes. They're shorter, entirely kids safe, classroom friendly episodes. Also thanks to everyone who leaves reviews for this show Ologies, which I read all of just hungrily, including this recent one from Jane of Monaco listened to the secret at the end of a recent episode and said that my having at least seven friendly spiders in my office has inspired them

Has inspired or has inspired them to inch toward getting over a fear of spiders And they were able to walk past one and this feet was so giant that it moved them to tears Jayne demonic I bet that spider is even happier than you are or I am so well done. Okay, call stology It's a real word. It first appeared in the book review of a tome titled Mosquitoes of New York in 1979 and the reviewer noted that Mosquitoes of New York is a great contribution to colsodology and will stand as a frequently cited reference for years to come. Look at that. Right now, 44 years later, I'm citing that citation. So colsodology, it's a study of mosquitoes. The word comes from the Latin for midge. They're Look at that right now 44 years later. I'm citing that citation. So call psychology

It's a study mosquitoes the word comes from the Latin for midge They're tiny cousins and because you had so so so so many very valid questions This episode went very long. It turned from an itty-bitty single to a beast So this first part in it, you'll become familiar with your sworn enemy, learning how they work, what they eat. You'll appreciate their beauty, trust me, their complexity, their cunning, and their strategy and the history. And then next week, we're going to tell you how to stop them from feasting on your exposed

parts. So get ready right now to learn about them. You're going to fill your ears with facts about high-pitched, sexy buzzing, their wings of wonder, what is happening with their hell mounts, why it's vital to study them, why they are scarier than a shark, where they make their babies in your yard, why the Skeeter Field needs bug nerds, why these hungry bitches want your blood in the first place, why you get bitten more than your friends, and next week, what to do about all that, with medical entomologist, mosquito expert,

and appreciator, and cholestologist, Dr. Fallon Ware Gilmore. Finally! I love her. How exciting is this for me, by the way? This is very exciting for me. I'm excited to finally be on here. I felt like we went through like a whole roller coaster

of like, defend my PhD, move to Puerto Rico, and then completely forgot about what was going on. So you're a doctor, wear Gilmore now. Yeah, it's wild. Yeah, I finished up my PhD last year. I just, I saw a Facebook memories post and it was like me getting, I had just picked up my cap and gown today, which is truly wild. How exciting. I mean, I have been just kind of waiting in the mosquito wings for timing to be right for you.

And now you're working with the CDC. Can you tell me a little bit about what the last year has been right for you. And now you're working with the CDC. Can you tell me a little bit about what the last year has been like for you? Yeah. So I defended my PhD in February and then that July I started in a program called the Epidemic Intelligence Service. And so this is a fellowship program with the CDC, globally recognized like was my dream position for its investigative and emergency response efforts. So again, EIS is the United States Epidemic Intelligence Service. Did you know that existed?

Neither did I. It's a two-year postdoc after PhD program for people in the health industry to do applied epidemiology. And if you're accepted into the Epidemic Intelligence Service program, you're training under CDC mentors. You're helping protect people all over the globe from some emerging and existing diseases. Also, it may involve a one-way plane ticket for those who love adventure or hate their hometowns. We're sent out where we are needed globally for healthcare and public health support.

So I am assigned to the Puerto Rico Department of Health and it's been great. The process for getting here was a little bit bumpy, but being able to live in Puerto Rico and really immerse myself in the culture and interact with the people has been very eye-opening and just a great experience overall. And then do you know where you might go after that or is it really kind of outbreak dependent

or lab dependent? It's honestly dependent. You know, ideally, some officers stay with CDC, some officers stay with the Department of Health, but you also have officers that go to farm, they go to other industries, maybe they go back to clinical work. So it really just depends on what is available at the time and what might catch my interest. And you mentioned something about this being a dream for you. How long have you wanted to work in mosquitoes or epidemiology or field work? Like how long has this kind of been like on your vision board?

Yeah, so I, I'm gonna be honest, I started out undergrad as a marine biology major. And that just wasn't for me. Oh, thank you. What about it? Do you get seasick? No, so we went, it was an ecology trip. we were in like a salt marsh and I just was like, I don't think I can do this long term. I was freaking out. I got so stuck in the mud that my shoes got lost. So I continued walking in the salt marsh without any shoes. And I went to my supervisor the next week and I said, I think I need to change my major. And so it was wild because I feel like I grew up and I was like, I want to work

with whales and dolphins and then I was like, I think I'll do environmental science. And so I took up environmental science and I had the opportunity to do some internships that were entomology focused. So studying insects and many of those were agriculture focused, so working on honey bees. But then I also did some work with wolf spiders. Isn't it? Yeah, that was a fun internship.

I never thought about, I never thought I would work with spiders or be okay with it. My mom was not okay with it. But- Are you pretty okay with spiders now? I love them. I actually had a pet tarantula. Her name was Rosie. She passed away a few years ago, but she was the first spider, first arachnid that I got after my internship. So

they're cute up close. What was her name again? Rosie. What species was she? She was a rose-haired tarantula. That's what I figured. I was like a pink toad or a rose hair. Yeah, she was so cute.

She was the cutest little thing. So you were working in entomology and you're digging spiders. And then how did you get the bug bug? I did. I was like, at that point I was doing environmental toxicology and science. And for me, it was like, this was a public health service. So I was looking with working with aquatic microorganisms to see how they could be indicators for stream and pond health. And I was like, there's got to be a way that I can combine my interest of public health,

but also of entomology. And I learned at a conference that I could do that through medical entomology. And so my friend, Shelly Whitehead. Thanks again, Shelly. Was the one who introduced me to medical entomology at the Tropical Medicine Conference, ASTMH. And when I got home for conference, I Googled it, I looked it all up. I was like, this is what I want to do. And I applied for labs that had a medical

entomology focus. Most of them were focusing on mosquito-borne diseases. And that's how I got into it. And I fell in love with it from day one. It's truly just, they're such small little critters, but they're so complicated. And I think the roles that they have in our ecosystem is very interesting. And they're beautiful up close. I know most people would be like, mosquitoes are ugly. But under a microscope, they're shiny, they're sparkly. They're beautiful.

The scales are lovely. More on mosquito glamour and miniature looks served in a moment. I trust you on that. I love that you went from literally whales to mosquitoes. Like, good noob. You just kept narrowing down your field until you got to like a teeny tiny, but very important insect. I mean, people have said that when it comes to teeny tiny mosquitoes, and I don't know if this is flimflam or not, but that they are the most dangerous animal to humans. Is that true? Or are hippos? How much impact do mosquitoes have on us?

So I think, you know, I've also seen this paper that was kind of ranking animals as most deadly. And you would think like off the cusp that it would be lions or maybe tigers, hippos frightening or bears, but they actually are mosquitoes. And not only are they a nuisance, but they've been known to be able to carry a lot of these debilitating diseases such as malaria and dengue, and West Nile. And also at the end of the day, mosquitoes have killed more people than any other creature in the world. Even today, almost 1 million people die a year from some type of mosquito-borne disease.

So it is not the mosquito itself, but it is the pathogen or the viruses and the parasites that they can transmit that are very deadly, but you kind of, it's a package deal at the end of the day, unfortunately. A million people a year. According to various compiled sources, the roundabout figure for human mortalities by mosquitoes is roughly a million people a year. Now, also high on the list of animals that could kill you. You ready for this? Freshwater snails. Also sandflies. They each transmit some parasite friends of their own. But yeah, first on the list by a lot is mosquitoes at a million a year with over 200 million mosquito

spread cases of malaria a year. Most of the malaria deaths occur in little kiddos under the age of five, and it's on the rise. So yes, it is correct that mosquitoes kill more people on Earth in one day than sharks have in the last century. Sharks are like, get off my jock, leave me alone, I like fish. But between the mosquitoes and the snails lies the number two animal risk to human beings. What animal kills us less than mosquitoes but more than snails? Lions?

Is it hippos? Is it raccoons with rabies? No. The number two animal caused mortality on earth, coming in at over a half a million deaths per year. It's caused by one species. It's a species of ape. Homo sapiens. It's you. So in terms of what animal can kill you, again, first mosquito, secondly, a warlord or someone who's striving and texting or maybe a person you

work with who was sold firearms like it was a cell phone. Well getting back to the mosquitoes themselves who are apparently just kind of wrong place, wrong time, really. You said they were beautiful and shiny and shimmery. Can you explain to me what it looks like when you're looking at a mosquito through a microscope? And like what power of microscope do you need to appreciate mosquitoes in that way? Yeah, so I was spoiled during my graduate career because our lab had these very nice microscopes

and I think they're really expensive, high quality ones. So imagine we're at a microscope and we have this Petri dish and we have these mosquitoes that have been dried down or they've been knocked down with ice to kind of keep them from moving. And so at first glance, they just look like little black flies with long legs. They're kind of keep them from moving. And so at first glance, they just like,

look like little black flies with long legs. They're kind of like gangly, kind of like the jack skeleton of flies. And so when you look at them close, like mosquitoes are actually distinguished by their long slender legs and this thin body, but they also have these specialized piercing mouth parts that allow them to feed off of invertebrates and vertebrates.

Tall, lanky legs for days and bloodthirsty mouths made of razors. Jack Skellington meets anemic 90s supermodel, meets Edward Scissormouth, meets a horny vampire. In addition to that, you'll see these shiny scales. And so in my head, I'm thinking about Aedes aegypti, because that is a vector or a mosquito species I work on. And you'll see scales on the wings. You'll also see scales along the body in different colors like white and silver. And so that banding is what really stands out when you first see them under the microscope.

And are those scales kind of like butterfly scales? So they're similar in the sense that it actually they're actually very similar. Depending on the mosquito species, the patterns are different and they might not be as shiny as they are for say for like butterflies. But for some mosquito species, we do see shinier scales, which I guess you could also think of them as fur, as an easier way to approach it. Is that why some look like tiger striped and some have like almost bumblebee stripes? Yeah, that's the coloration pattern of their scales.

And so Aedes agiftei has like like those white scales that banding around its body and around its leg. Why are they so fancy? Yeah. And there's also, there are fancier mosquitoes. Like Aedes aegypti is just one off of the top of my head, but there are like mosquito species that have blue, like sapphire color scales, basically, and paddles on their leg, which we think might be used for mating as a mating signal to females.

Hello ladies. I didn't know that there were sapphire glittery ones. Yeah, it's called Savathys cyanaceae. So it's a mosquito we commonly see in central and South America. But if you look it up, I personally would name it the peacock mosquito, but it is a, if someone had was like, I don't think mosquitoes are beautiful. I think they would take one look at that, that mosquito and it would really change their

perspective. So yes, they can be stunning in metallic blues and feathery legs and a tanny and these glorious shimmers. And why does that even matter? Well, if you are intimately bonding over blood with one, it's nice to know its name. So while not all mosquitoes are transmitting diseases into your organs, a few might be. So it's good to be familiar. So Aedes is a genus that can carry Zika and yellow fever. And Aedes aegypti are those beautiful striped, like art deco, black and white sparkly ones. They are day snackers on your flesh.

Now the Colix genus tends to be a little bleh, like all beige, kind of like a hospital waiting room. They're very common. They're called a house mosquito, and they prefer to eat at night. Side note, they can also carry West Nile virus, dog heartworm, and some other scaries. And if I may, they're the least interesting to look at. Now Anopheles, these buggers carry malaria, and you can spot them by their four fashionable

brown wing spots and the way that they keep their ass in the air when they're drinking you, like a mosquito doing a keg stand. And just like your junior year homecoming date, it might do that keg stand before absolutely fucking you and giving you a disease. In this case, malaria. Anopheles, they bite at night and they kill a lot of people. Now, if you wish that there was a Facebook for mosquitoes, the closest we might have is the 2022 study, Participatory Approaches for Raising Awareness Among Subsistence Farmers in Tanzania about the Spread of Insecticide Resistance in Malaria Vectors and the Possible Link to Improper Agricultural Pesticide Use, which

notes that local farmers wanted to know what these things look like, including learning that the malaria vector, Anopheles, floats as a larva parallel to the water surface. And according to the study, quote, some participants referred to Aedes as being the most beautiful mosquitoes, given its black body and white spots. They also referred to male mosquitoes as bearded, providing reference to their feathery and tinny,

just like human males. And the study quotes one 34-year-old farmer who exclaimed, oh, now I understand that not every mosquito in my house is anopheles and can transmit malaria. There are other mosquitoes which also dominate our village. We love bug appreciation. But why these morphological stylistic differences?

So according to the 2023 study, the origin of black and white coloration of the Asian tiger mosquito, cholestidologists found that it might be to communicate within their species for mating and also as a predator deflection. And I don't want to brag for eighties, but the paper uses the exact phrase, motion dazzle camouflage.

Clearly, cholestidologists appreciate their study species. Do you have a soft spot in your heart for mosquitoes having studied them? I do. Unfortunately, it's very... Oh, that's great. That's great. I do. And so I think they're really interesting. And I think it's so wild how they've kind of evolved alongside of us, especially these species that are utilizing these urban habitats. But anytime I was doing lab work, I slightly felt bad. But at the same time, I was like, mosquito eggs hatch all the time. We have plentiful mosquitoes in the lab, but they do have a soft spot for me. So when people are like,

should we eradicate all mosquitoes? I'm like, hold on. Of the 3,700 species we have, only a certain amount of them are able to transmit pathogens that are concerning for human and animals. And the rest are just, they're doing what's basic to their biology and for the ecology. Okay. So how many mosquitoes are a quiet nemeses that we don't understand, but we feel obligated to hate. We know maybe it's rash, and that is not an itchy pun, but we must be a legion to our own skin, right? So how many are enemies? I checked into the evidence and the accusations, AKA the 2023 study,

robust network stability of mosquitoes and human pathogens of medical importance. And it turns out that the majority of mosquitoes are screaming from their tiny knife mouths. I'm innocent. Only 2.5% of mosquito species are known disease spreaders. And the jury is still out on a lot of the other species. But at most, it would be 9.3%, less than a tenth of mosquitoes

giving you parasites. So that's good, right? Also it's not their fault that they have baggage in the form of pathogens. And if they could quit blood and not risk being loathed and swatted and flattened by your big hands, I'm sure they would. Do all of those species use blood as like a meal or as, I'm not sure why they use blood and we will get to that because it is a huge question. But like what are commonalities with a mosquito? Is it just the long legs? Is it the blood lust? Is it the proboscis? Like what makes

a mosquito a mosquito? So a few things. So mosquitoes are in the order diptera, which are the order that all of our flies are grouped into. So diptera is Greek for two wings. So it refers to the characteristic set of wings that they have on their back. That's what gives us flies. See our amazing dipterology episode with Dr. Brian Lessard, who names flies after drag queens officially. Happy pride, by the way. Now for mosquitoes, we have a few distinctive features that make them mosquitoes.

One, it's their mouth part. So mosquitoes have this elongated tube-like mouth part called the proboscis, which they use to pierce the skin and attract blood. And this adaptation is unique to female mosquitoes, because it's essential that they blood feed. That blood is necessary for egg development. In contrast, our common housefly have these sponge-like mouthparts,

which they use to sponge up liquids. Yes, that diptyrology episode I mentioned on flies goes into greater, darker, disgusting depth of barfing and lapping it up after tasting with their feet. Let's take a quick trip back to diptyrology with Dr. Bry the Fly Guy. They do deserve some slack. They do. What about their feet? Do they taste with their feet?

Are they covered in shit all the time? Well, they have happy feet because yes, they do taste from their feet. They're impatient. Instead of waiting to get the food in their mouth and like, you know, taste it that way, like we would, they like to stand in whatever they're eating and it's yes, no, do I eat it, do I not?

And so what they do is, if it tastes good, that's when they'll drop their proboscis, their mouth part that has a sponge at the end that saps up all the liquid. And they actually do eat shit, because shit is high in protein and other nutrients and electrolytes as well.

But that's a diptychology episode and while mosquitoes are flies, we're honing in on culcidology specifically. And according to the National Institutes of Health, yes, mosquitoes, like house flies, can taste with their mouth, but also their feet. They love you before they even cut you. We also know that female mosquitoes, you know, outside of requiring blood for egg development, they can utilize a variety of different feeding hosts. And so that is a few things that make mosquitoes mosquitoes.

Are some of them solely looking for frog blood and some are looking for bird blood and some are down with humans or are they like, if I can pierce it and suck it, I will? So you do have mosquito species that will feed on reptiles and amphibians and you have some that are silvatic and prefer forested habitats where they'll find like these woodland creatures and you have some that primarily prefer to feed off of humans. So you do have a there is a variety and what they will feed on and their host preference at the end of the day. So according to the 2021 study differential attraction in mosquito human interactions

and implications for disease control, some mosquitoes prefer nonhumans like birds and mammals. They're zoophilic and others want mostly you and they're androphilic. But this study also found that if their preferred meal is not available, they'll take their second or third option, like ordering a patty melt, one that diners 86'd on Rubens. But sometimes it's not even a goopy bird or a squirrel they want. There was this 2018 study, identification of Urontania safarina as a specialist of anal lids broadens known mosquito host use patterns, and it explains that, quote, despite over a

century of intensive study, no mosquito species is known to specialize on non-vertebrate hosts. However, they continue, we provide the first evidence to our knowledge that a mosquito, in this case, Eurythenea safarina, a gorgeously blue flecked creature, specializes on earthworms and leeches. I mean, I have friends who only drink biodynamic natural wines. I have others who would happily enjoy a room temperature gin out of a solo cup. I'm simply saying that life finds a way.

I wonder how the proboscis must be able to pierce reptile skin. Do they go in between the scales? Do they just get up in there? So the proboscis is strong-ish, but, you know, reptile skin is hard. So I've seen videos where they've recorded the mosquito ho-seeking and the mosquito found like a little tiny slither of skin where a scale wasn't covering it or the softest part of the body of that animal. So sometimes that's the stomach area that's easier for them to bite or maybe that might be near some other orifices. You know, I think that happened to my daughter, Grammy, a dog, who has a mosquito,

looks like a mosquito bite right on her tummy, but you know, where she has less fur. Is that what happens to mammals too? Is it easier to bite, you know, under the legs or somewhere where it's more vulnerable? Yes, similarly, when we go outside, typically when we're, you know, under the legs or somewhere where it's more vulnerable? Yes. Similarly, when we go outside, typically when we're, you know, hiking or doing like a lot of outdoor activities to protect ourselves from mosquitoes, we might wear long sleeve clothing and socks, but mosquitoes

will find those spots that are not covered, that are most vulnerable. And so with domestic animals like cats and dogs, it's easy to go for areas where there isn't a lot of fur. So that's going to be the facial area, maybe around the eyes, but also under the tummy. And I've also seen my dog used to get a lot of bug bites near her ear as well. Gotcha. Yeah. I'm from California and I remember I went to like Minnesota for a wedding once in the summer and the air

was just thick with mosquitoes. I'd never seen anything like it because I'm from like more arid climate. And I had been bending over like doing something, helping out or whatever and I had like a belt of mosquito bites from like where my shirt had like come up. They don't care. But where, where, where on your body is safe? I asked the 2022 study observing the distribution of mosquito bites on humans to inform personal protection measures against malaria and dengue vectors, which somehow convinced four volunteers

to get in a room with lab rearedared and disease-free but starving mosquitoes from either 6 a.m. to noon for day-biting Aedes or 6 p.m. to midnight for night-biting Anopheles for 20 days. And from this blood sacrifice, we now know that the Anopheles bites when the volunteer was standing up. Those were almost all below the knee. Anopheles, they like below the knee. But when these generous volunteers were lying down sleeping,

they got bitten all over their damn body by the anopheles, which are night biters. Now, the day biting, 80s bites, were only about 50% below the knees. And then they were all over the place while sleeping. So researchers concluded that wearing socks, trousers, and long-sleeve shirts could theoretically prevent up to 83% of bites during sleeping and at least 90% of non-sleeping bites. I also was like, okay that's good, but I scanned the entire

paper for some explanation of how they convinced people to participate in the study. And I came up blank, other than the fact that these folks were in Tanzania and they had a vested interest perhaps in donating their fragile skin and blood to science for malarial prevention. Since they didn't get paid for their service, I'm going to read from the study acknowledgements, which include, we would like to express our sincere gratitude to our volunteers, Moses Mlug, Boniface Megwila, Baraka Kidwanga, and Abraham Mekskaya. From me, thank you, sirs, for withstanding

that lion's den of tiny predators. Yeah, they're ruthless. They're ruthless, but they're smart, and maybe I smell delicious. We'll get to that too, but do they live everywhere and there's just more of them in more humid climates or do we just like straight up not see them in Antarctica? So mosquitoes are what makes them really interesting is that they can take up a lot of these ecological niches. So they're ubiquitous

in many parts of the world and their distribution at the end of the day is going to be influenced by environmental conditions and the availability of suitable breeding sites. So how good is the vibe? Can you mate? Can you lay eggs there? For the most part, most places will do, Dr. Wier-Gilmore says. So we've seen mosquitoes thrive in habitats, including temperate rainforest, tropical rainforest,

urban areas. But again, you know, we're not seeing mosquitoes in Antarctica, but we are seeing them in a lot of different places. And when we have changes in climate as well, it's creating more suitable habitat for these populations to shift. Skin hot? Oh, right. Like right now, we might not be seeing them in the top of a Nordic fjord, but give it

a couple decades and who knows? Maybe there'll be a Sandals Resort there. Oh yeah, and their logo would be like a mosquito. Everything's changing. It is. What about the temperature? How much does the temperature affect that? And do they all just die in the winter? What happens to them?

Yeah, so not all species of mosquito die in the winter. You have some species that will overwinter. So they'll overwinter as eggs, or they might overwinter as larvae depending on where they are. So if you have a thick level of ice or something that might basically be incubating them or allowing them to be dormant, that might change. So not all mosquito species die during the winter. So yes, some of your summer skeeters survived the winter without a parka, mittens, no $6 latte that got cold as soon as you stepped outside.

They just hunkered down under ice. Tougher than you. No offense. And then as far as temperature plays a huge role in mosquito physiology and biology. And so temperatures need to be not perfect, but just right. So you see the emergence of the larvae into pupae and the pupae into adult. I remember when I was a kid, I thought

I had found a new species of animal because I looked into a bucket and saw all these tiny shrimp. And then my dad was like, those are just mosquito larvae. Oh, that's okay. No, they're very funny looking when they're at that stage. You're just like, I don't really know what you are. And there are a lot of other fly species that will lay their eggs and bodies of water and hatch. So it can be confusing on what they might actually be. Can you tell me a little bit more about that life cycle and why a female mosquito needs that blood meal? Do they need that right before they lay eggs

and the rest of the time, what are they munching on? That's a good question. So do we want a full story of the mosquito life cycle? Of course. Okay. Dude, come on. That's a good question. So do we want a full story of the mosquito life cycle? Of course. Okay, dude. Come on. That's fun. I love it. I wish we had visuals because there's so many good, there's so many departments of health and mosquito abatement groups that have beautiful visuals that they

use and outreach to describe the life stages of the mosquito. But for this, I'll try and paint a picture. And so we'll start with Aedes aegypti. This is a container breeding mosquito. So it prefers to breed in manmade containers that are left around. So in the 2015 study, Breeding Sites of Aedes aegypti, Potential Dengue Vectors in East Ethiopia, colesodologists set out to see which reservoirs of water were the most attractive to expectant mosquito moms. And first off, rainwater only place, okay?

They did not prefer to lay eggs in tap water. It's got to be fresh, organic, from the sky. Now some attractive places included mud pots, old sinks, small puddles and rumpled up tarps, and neglected buckets and such. But the top spot for a Mazzi nursery? Overwhelmingly old tires. Absolutely darling, love, obsessed. And so a female who has bloodfed, who has made it, will lay these eggs on the edge of the water and those eggs will hatch after a certain amount of time. Once they hatch, we call those larvae.

The species will stay as larvae for around maybe we'll say four to six days. And again, this is dependent on temperature conditions because if temperature is higher, the pace of them hatching and also the pace of them at their larval stage might be quicker. Or if it's lower you might have a slower developmental cycle. Okay different species have different parenting styles but a lot of common mosquitoes will lay a bunch of eggs like in a raft style kind of in a bundle and then when the

larvae are in the water some will be underwater using little snorkel on their face while other species like the malariarying Anopheles genus, is floating flat right under the water surface. But before they emerge as adults, rising from the water to conquer the air, they go through an awkward pupa stage, where they look like shrimps with big, weird heads. And after larvae, we have pupae.

The pupae under the microscope look like little Shrek. They're like little commas with Shrek ears. They're funny looking. And then after the pupae we have adults. So they'll emerge from that aquatic habitat into terrestrial adults. And then as adults they'll mate and then continue that cycle of laying eggs, turning into larvae, turning into pupae and adults again. But during that, the female will need to take on a blood meal for specific biological and reproductive reasons. So they need a blood meal in order

to obtain the necessary nutrients for egg development. The blood meal provides a lot of things for them. It's providing amino acids and other proteins that are essential for their yolk. And so mosquito eggs have a type of yolk protein. And additionally, the iron obtained from the blood aids and physiological processes needed for the overall egg development. Just like a hot smoothie, chocoblock with fat and meat bits and protein and iron. Listen, I've never had a baby out of any whole of mine, but I have been essential to growing new life on planet Earth in garbage tires and then these babies grow up and you hate them.

Yeah. I mean, good for them. Good for them. I'm not mad at it. So it's just like a tasty treat before, you know, she has to do the big push. If that makes it any better. It does. Good for her.

Is she eating or he eating anything else in the interim? If she's like, okay, I'm ready to nest. I'm ready to start a family. I need a blood meal. But if she's like, okay, I'm ready to nest. I'm ready to start a family. I need a blood meal. But if she's like, I'm not quite ready yet. I'm still exploring the world. Is she eating nectar? Is she on a water fast? Yeah, water fast. Yes. So, yeah, when she's not taking a blood meal, mosquitoes, male and female, are nectar feeders.

So they're going to be using these flower resources as the sugar resource to get them by. So at the end of the day, they're actually pollinators. Oh, look at that. They're just pollinating, and then when it's time to start a family, they just borrow a little bit of iron and protein from you. Are they looking also for anything hormonal?

I feel like that is maybe a source of flim flam. That has always been a complicated one for me as well. I feel like I've done a deep dive on what makes mosquitoes attractive to you. So we know that they're picking up certain olfactory cues and visual cues from us. So that's going to be carbon dioxide or CO2, but they're also going to be picking up signals from our sweat. So that's going to be carbon dioxide or CO2, but they're also going to be picking up signals from our sweat. So there are chemicals in our sweat that they can smell that make us very attractive.

It smells amazing. Is that worse than if you're like hiking and you're breathing out a lot of carbon dioxide and your respiratory rate's higher and you're sweatier? Is this why if you're hiking like the Pacific Crest Trail or something, you're screwed? Yeah. I mean, so they're picking up those indicators and they're using it when they're trying to basically seek out a host to feed from. So if you're breathing more because you're hiking and you're letting out more CO2, that's just giving a better signal to the mosquito to be like, oh, that might be something I could blood feed from

We're gonna dive back into what makes you so attractive to mosquitoes or potentially less attractive in a minute But first some words from sponsors of the show who make it possible to donate to a related cause each week and this week It'll be going to the malaria no more foundation Which has worked for nearly two decades campaigning to end malaria and make a world where no one dies from a mosquito bite And so far well over two billion mosquito nuts have been distributed in areas hardest hit by malaria two decades campaigning to end malaria and make a world where no one dies from a mosquito bite. And so far, well, over two billion mosquito nuts have been distributed in areas hardest hit by malaria transmission and over seven million lives have been saved. And you can find out more at malaria no more.org.

And thanks to sponsors of the show for making that donation possible. Okay, so we were talking about who gets bitten the most. And if you're wondering, do people really study that? The answer is, are you okay? Of course they do, yes. Cholestidologists are all about this question. And according to the 2021 meta study, variability in human attractiveness to mosquitoes.

Mosquitoes are known to find and bite humans by being attracted to carbon dioxide, lactic acid, ketones, ammonia, and other volatile organic compounds through our skin. Also noted in this meta study is that it's possible that diet can make you more attractive and the two top culprits they found, beer and bananas, make you more delicious to mosquitoes or being pregnant. So according to the 2023 paper, prevalence of malaria parasite and its effects on some

hematological parameters amongst pregnant women in Nigeria, pregnant people in the advanced stages of pregnancy, exhale 21% more carbon dioxide than non pregnant people, which makes them much more attractive to mosquitoes. And that's obviously a risk for both the baby and the parent. You do not want to get a disease from hungry mosquitoes. But yeah, while garlic through the skin will not repel these little vampires, your sweat, your microbes, and just simply breathing,

breathing out carbon dioxide can be like a ring and dinner bell, like coming in it to swarms of them. I had a boyfriend once who was hiking in the Pacific Coast Trail years ago, and he said that they, like come and get it, to swarms of them. I had a boyfriend once who was hiking in the Pacific Coast Trail years ago, and he said that they like turned around and went home earlier because there were so many mosquitoes. And I was like, oh, I wonder if they're just breathing a lot. So they're looking for carbon dioxide.

They're looking for certain things in your sweat as well. Mm-hmm, yeah, so there's like chemical cues in our sweat that they're picking up. And that's why you've probably heard this, that certain blood types are more attractive to mosquitoes. And this is because every blood type has a chemical signature. And some, based off a few papers, might be more attractive to mosquitoes than others. But I think at the end of the day, it really is the overall person and their biology at

the time that might change depending on the mosquito species and the time and place. I love that you have done a deep dive on this. Have so many people asked you that you're... What caused you to start looking into these papers? So I think early on it was like, I have type B blood. Does that make me more attractive? But at the end of the day, I was just like, but what is it about type B blood or whatever other blood types that are attractive to mosquitoes?

Like what is the biology behind that? Why is the blood actually attractive? For me, I think it is like a full-scale picture of it's different indicators from that person, the CO2, chemical cues from the sweat, microbiota, or like the microbes in your sweat as well. They find that attractive. That is more of an indicator of if you're attractive to mosquitoes or not. You just got your PhD, but you're already published on several papers. I saw about thermal sensitivity and microbes and thermal stress responses and temperature. What does temperature have to do with how mosquitoes

either look for a blood meal or just exist? Right. So I guess we'll frame this in the context of climate change. So climate change is going to influence mosquito population and disease transmission in several ways. And the first thing we think about is the expansion of mosquito habitats into new regions as temperatures rise and also the precipitation patterns. Dr. Rhea Gilmore says that altered seasonal patterns of mosquito activity can also lead to more transmission and longer transmission periods, also increased disease risk. So climate change isn't just water levels rising on seaside

cottages, but you know that. At the mosquito level, temperature can impact basically the growth rate and developmental rate of the mosquito, but also the rate of development for the pathogen inside of the mosquito. So we call this the extrinsic incubation period or the EIP. And EIP is the amount of time it takes for that pathogen to develop, to traverse throughout the body of the mosquito and make it to the salivary glands where it then can be passed on when the mosquito is taking a new blood meal from an uninfected host. Okay, so that extrinsic incubation period of malaria is also called the period of spirogyny, and it describes the time it takes for parasites to develop in the mosquito from the moment

they take in gametocytes or sex cells via a tainted blood meal and when they mate in their guts and travel to the salivary glands to be splurged into your bloodstream. And according to Malaria Parasite Development in Mosquitos, a 1998 journal article in the Annual Review of Entomology, Plasmodium vivax, one of the five species of the single-celled protozoa which causes malaria in humans, it takes just nine days from the ingestion to doing the nasty and mating in the mosquito tummy to taking up space in their salivary glands of the bug to get into you.

So that extrinsic incubation period is important because it means you can be infected and malaria can spread before you've ever even shown symptoms or gotten treated to kill it. And so that pathogen lives in the salivary glands. Gross, tell me more. And can you tell me a little bit about how the bites work? Is there a little bit of a blur of stuff into you before they suck it back up? Like, are they spitting a little bit into you

before they start sucking it up? Or are there like anti-inflammatories? What does that needle mouth have? Yeah, so I guess we can look at the mosquito mouth part as like six different needles. So you have two of them which are going to be holding back the skin, one of them which is actually doing the piercing and the sucking and then you have actually two of them that are sawing at the skin, right? What?

Fallon, what? Yeah, they have this very specialized mouth part that is frightening when you look at pictures up close. Six, they have six needles, including two saws. That's amazing. That makes predator or like sci-fi monsters seem like so simple. Okay, two hold it open like a surgeon. Two to saw.

Okay, what are the sawing ones doing? Well, I guess it's helping them kind of get through the skin to the capillaries, the blood vessels or the capillaries. That's so cool. So we touched on some of the temperature work that I did previously. And I guess when we think about climate change, it's also just not risk of infection or increased mosquito bites based on the habitat you're in, but it's also the impact that it's going

to have on the mosquito at an individual level. And so the work I was doing before was looking at how infection with some of these pathogens alter the mosquito in its ability to cope with temperature and what that might mean for how we see the expansion of some of these mosquito ranges. Does it look like some of their numbers will reduce or are we looking at a huge increase? Yeah, so it really depends on the mosquito species and the habitat in their prior thermal history. So in some areas we expect a contraction of mosquito species, but in others we expect that to expand in their geographical range to increase.

But a lot of things have to fall in place for disease transmission to take place. So it's really species dependent. When you are talking about the salivary glands, and then I absolutely lost my shit hearing that they have six different needles in their mouths. Yeah. Which that's like, I was really blowing my mind right now. Can you tell me more about that surgery that they perform? It sounds like laparoscopic surgery. Yeah. So the first time I saw a mosquito mouth part, I was like, what is going on?

What is this? Let's get into these twinkly, saw-mouthed, tiny little blood zombie fairies. So when a female mosquito pierces the skin, she has this basically this flexible lip-like sheath that goes up and it stays outside as the insect pushes in basically six needle-like parts. And so two of these three needles are called the maxillae and they have these tiny teeth that let the mosquito saw through human skin or through skin in general and they're kind of like little drill bits. Yeah they're so sharp we don't really feel the bite, but they do enough damage.

And then we have another set of needles, the mandibles that hold the tissue apart while the mosquito saws into the skin. And then the fifth needle is called the labrum and it pierces the blood vessel. Wow. So they use some to spread it kind of like, like it just sounds like they're doing surgery. Yeah. I mean, they're surgeons. Yeah. And you have that fifth needle part that's piercing the blood vessel. It's looking for the blood vessel in that. So it's like moving around in the skin to find the blood vessel. Oh my gosh. And then do they just do a poke into the blood vessel? And then is that kind of like a needle or is that also kind of like a saw? Like how are they piercing and sucking

at the same time? That is basically just piercing into the blood vessel and they're able to suck up with that appendage as well. The other two appendages have done the basically the service of sawing and then that last fifth needle the labrum is Piercing but also sucking the sucking mouth part and of course some mosquitoes fill up more than others But the most common size mosquitoes are around six millimeters long and they weigh a few Milligrams at most although they can drink two to three times their body weight at a time. And according to the Coachella Valley Mosquito and Vector Control District, mosquitoes can take in anywhere from 0.001 to 0.01 milliliters of blood. And their website says, for its size, that would

be the equivalent of a person drinking as much as is in a bathtub, says the Coachella Valley Mosquito and Vector Control District. Let me tell you something. Coachella knows a little something about seasonal bench drinking. When we're talking about teen mosquitoes and big ones, do all of their mouth parts function kind of the same? So yeah, that proboscis and that piercing sucking mouth part

is going to be the same for most of the species. It will change in size and the coloration might look different, but it serves the same purpose. And when I picture a mosquito, I picture the ones that I probably grew up around and are more common to the West Coast of the United States, but how small and how big do they get? Yeah. So our biggest species of mosquito is our elephant mosquito. So Tuxo ronchitis. And so this, he is a big fella. She's a big fella. But she, they have these tusks on them at the end of their proboscis, but they are, they are quite large

mosquitoes, not as large as crane flies, which people typically get confused with mosquitoes, but they are some of the larger of our mosquito species that we have. mosquitoes, not as large as craneflies, which people typically get confused with mosquitoes, but they are some of the larger of our mosquito species that we have. And craneflies, they're not skeeter eaters, right? I thought forever like, oh, those craneflies, don't worry, they eat mosquitoes. That's total horse pucky, right? Yeah. You know, it's okay because when I moved to Georgia with my family, the names for crane flies were so wild. It was like mosquito hawk, like hawk killer.

And I was like a hawk killer. I was like, what is that? But you know, crane flies don't actually live that long either. They are using nectar as their main resource for energy, but they are not predators to mosquitoes. Or people, right? They're just trying to live their life. No, or people, you know, you kind of feel bad for them. Like they're not the most graceful flyers. Anytime I've seen a crane fly, they're like trying to make it to the door of the window. And then you just like have this random man in Walmart who's just

like, kill that mosquito. And you're like, sir, that crane fly is just trying to live his best life. Like let him go. He just wants to go find some fresh grass. He does. Like their main job is to mate. Like they're born. They're like, let me go find some sugar and then let me go mate and then die. They just want to snack on a date. Right. Yeah. I mean means he is all of us. So craneflies, neither mosquitoes nor mosquito assassins, just lonely, big, bumbling mosquito-looking sugar lovers who might accidentally saunter clumsily into a big box store to get slandered

and then killed. So one of the big reasons I really enjoyed and was drawn to studying mosquitoes is because they're so diverse. And so as with most animals, size does matter. And like other groups, there's considerable size range of mosquito adults, even though they all look the same to us. And so I think the biggest difference that I've seen would probably be uranitani and then toxoronchitis. So toxoronchitis and gali nippers are quite large mosquitoes. And I think mass wise, between the smallest and the largest,

it's maybe like a 60 fold mass difference. So quite big. What about the teeny ones? How teeny teeny do they get? So I will say that I'm pretty biased because I work with a larger mosquito species. So 80s mosquitoes in general are a little bit heartier, a little bit bigger than anophelines. But I will say that from my perspective, that anopheles species of mosquitoes tend to gear towards the smaller end compared to like an 80s or a Q-lex mosquito.

When it comes to mating and finding a date, how are mosquitoes finding each other? Is there natural selection or is it like, this world is so big, I'm small, you're small, let's do it? I think, you know, it would be so fun to be like, is there a hinge for mosquitoes where they make like a profile picture?

They're like, I'm from Alaska. But no, in all seriousness. So that buzzing noise that we find so irritating is actually emitted by mosquitoes and it's used for communication, but also mate location. And so male mosquitoes actually produce a higher frequency of sound versus females. And they're using that to locate and pursue a mate and potentially avoid threats and other predators. Is there something evolutionarily about a really annoying noise that helps the mate? Or I wonder if you hear a high, high, high pitched annoying one,

if that means it's a male and it's not going to bite you. Right. That's interesting. So for me, I think it has to do more with their morphology. And I think it's the way that their wings are set on their body. So I think they're able to produce that higher frequency sound because they are oscillating so quickly. And maybe that was just like something that was used as a signal for identifying potential

mates. So apparently mosquitoes can flap their tiny little wings up to a thousand times a second at a tremendously high frequency, over 700 hertz, which is about the same pitch as a police siren, although it can vary depending on the mood they're trying to set. And according to some researchers at Cornell, male mosquitoes usually are thrumming a buzz around 600 to 700 hertz, and ladies are a bit lower at 400 hertz. But when they find each other and are about to mate, they are quite literally vibing. They're raising their buzz frequency in harmonics to about 1200 hertz, which is right in like

the whistle tone registers, like Mariah Carey's high notes. Just two bugs, just get it on. And the males have these bushy antennae to pick up on ladies' locations using 7,000 sensory cells dedicated to hearing, which is almost as many as you have. Now, in case you're like, this seems like something I could get into and you need a meditation playlist,

get yourself some inspo with this freshest hell paper from last month, surveillance of mosquitoes harnessing their buzzing sound, which concluded that yes, mosquito sounds are species- and sex specific and important for communication and they can even relay fed or unfed status. Cornell researcher Dr. David Hoy has said they are interacting on the fly and in song. So they're kind of like hummingbirds that are surgeons a little bit. Yeah. Maybe. But that are also sparkly. They're also sparkly. You know like hummingbirds that are surgeons a little bit. Yeah.

Maybe. But that are also sparkly. They're also sparkly. You know, hummingbirds and mosquitoes, kind of, they're fast. They're kind of sparkly and they have that weird mouth part. Right. The tiniest hummingbirds ever. They just happen to like meat, which is you. Yeah. But we have

one bazillion questions from listeners which we were not going to toss at you all at once, but can I ask them from listeners? Mm-hmm. Yeah. Amazing. So next week we return with all the tips on how to repel them, what you can spray on your skin, what to do in your yard. We talk Zika, Dengue, Malaria, West Nile, how much to worry about each of them, and so many more practicalities that will make you itch and scratch a little less.

Meanwhile, ask Mozzie people amazing questions because it's worth the wait. Now you can follow Dr. Laura Gilmour on X at MozzieFal, linked in the show notes. She's on Instagram at Foxy Fal, which is also linked. The style and mosquito appreciation, in equal measures. She's lovely. We'll be back next week with more of her wisdom

and her bug facts and my personal giddiness. We're at Ologies on Instagram and Twitter. I'm at Ali Ward on both. Smology's is our new spin-off show. In its own subscribable feed, Kid and Classroom Safe, shorter cuts of classic episodes. You can subscribe at the link in the show notes. That's Smology's. Please do tell friends with kids. Word of mouth is everything to us, so tell a friend.

Ology's merch is available at ologysmerch.com. You can become a patron at patreon.com slash ology's. Our Ology's podcast Facebook group is adminned by Erin Talbert, professional transcripts by Aveline Malik of The Wordery. Noelle Dilworth is our scheduling producer. Susan Hale is our managing director who recently celebrated a birthday, even though she tends to lay low on her birthday. We love you, Susan.

Deal with it. This episode was edited by Jake Chafee, and lead editor who has earned her Scaly Mosquito Stripes, Mercedes Maitland of Maitland Audio. Nick Thorburn wrote the theme music, and if you stick around till the end of the episode, I tell you a secret. And this week, I just realized that I said, tell a friend. And there was this grocery store chain, I must have been like three, and it was called Alpha Beta. And their commercials were like, Alpha Beta,

tell a friend. And I took that very literally. And there was a friend of mine in the neighborhood named Tom, who was technically my first husband. We were three, we were set up, we had a ceremony. Actually scratch that, his name was Tad. I'm sorry about that Tad. First husbands always get the shaft. But anyway, having been instructed by Alpha Beta via a commercial to please tell a friend, I was like, hey Tad, Alpha Beta, I did it.

And I hope he still remembers. But ologies, tell a friend. You can just say the word. You don't have to elaborate. I think either way it's appreciated. But anyway, alright, that's it. Next week, more mosquitoes. How do you repel them? What do you do? What do you do? What do you do? Why? We got you. Bye bye.