SciShow Tangents

Mosquitos

Episode Summary

Summer's over, which is a bummer, but now's the perfect time to remember that summer isn't all perfect. It brings sunburns, too-hot car seats, and, worst of all, blood-sucking mosquitos! So let's embrace the beginning of fall by talking some smack about those nasty, itchy, little guys!

Episode Notes

Summer's over, which is a bummer, but now's the perfect time to remember that summer isn't all perfect. It brings sunburns, too-hot car seats, and, worst of all, blood-sucking mosquitos! So let's embrace the beginning of fall by talking some smack about those nasty, itchy, little guys!

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[Fact Off]

Millipede toxins as mosquito repellent 

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1023/A:1026489826714

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs00114-003-0427-2

https://www.springer.com/gp/about-springer/media/research-news/all-english-research-news/madagascar-s-lemurs-use-millipedes-for-their-tummy-troubles/15982512

https://www.nytimes.com/2000/12/05/science/for-monkeys-a-millipede-a-day-keeps-mosquitoes-away.html

https://www.mdedge.com/dermatology/article/198138/wounds/whats-eating-you-millipede-burns

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7504811/

Vampire jumping spiders eating mosquitoes

https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2018/04/17/601896991/what-you-learn-when-you-put-smelly-socks-in-front-of-mosquitoes

https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2015/aug/05/mosquito-eating-vampire-spider-could-be-recruited-for-war-on-malaria

https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/53382/meet-vampire-spider

https://www.livescience.com/5818-spiders-attracted-blood-perfume.html

https://www.livescience.com/1214-killer-spiders-prefer-malaria-mosquitoes.html

https://www.livescience.com/20800-vampire-spiders-blood-meal.html

[Ask the Science Couch]

Attracting mosquitoes

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S009286741400155X

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10886-015-0587-5

https://www.cell.com/current-biology/fulltext/S0960-9822(19)30215-5

https://www.niaid.nih.gov/news-events/how-mosquitoes-smell-human-sweat

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/229127147_A_Review_of_Mosquito_Attraction_Studies_Important_Parameters_and_Techniques

http://www.sciencepublishinggroup.com/journal/paperinfo?journalid=547&doi=10.11648/j.aje.20190302.13

https://academic.oup.com/jme/article/41/4/796/885285

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5949359/

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0960982219306943

[Butt One More Thing]

Mosquito anus blood pre-urine

https://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/20/science/how-hungry-mosquitoes-cool-themselves.html