Mosquito: The Ultimate Killer

this episode was brought to you by curiosity stream the mosquito an animal that kills more people than all other animals combined despite our best efforts these bloodsuckers have been in the zone for over 30 million years and we don't know how to stop them hi I'm Danielle and you're watching Animal Logic the earliest evidence of mosquitoes is found in Canadian amber from about 80 million years ago and the oldest mosquito full of blood ever found was 46 million years old these mosquitoes appeared when our ancestors were still living in trees they probably fed on megafauna like the gasps tortoise or kalitta theer's over the eons mosquitoes have diversified and now there are over 3,000 recognized species they're technically part of the fly family Calissa day and their name is Spanish for little fly not all of them like to gorge themselves on human blood different mosquito species specialize in different animals including such unlikely prey as birds snakes and even fish several species feed on human blood but the vast majority of deaths come from just three species Aedes aegypti transmits dengue fever chikungunya Zika miuro and yellow fever Anopheles gambiae a carries malaria and Culex pipiens transmits West Nile virus the reason that they're so effective at transmitting pathogens is because of their amazing blood sucking mechanism their proboscis mosquitoes can live off nectar or honeydew but females need to drink blood to get the proteins and iron they need to produce eggs it's a dangerous job as their prey is usually thousands of times larger than them and can easily kill them but it's a job at which they've been excelling for millions of years to find prey they use their vision heat sensors and chemo reception basically they look for warm moving bodies that produce carbon dioxide they can follow a plume of carbon dioxide to its source until it finds a nice landing spot with exposed skin then it's time for the proboscis to work its magic though it may seem like a simple single needle it's actually a sophisticated mechanism with a chemo receptive organ and six separate needles protected by a sheath or mantle [Music] the chemo receptive organ is called the labium it looks for chemicals in the skin such as lactic acid and sugars in order to find the best place to bite ideally they want to be as close to a blood vessel as possible then two serrated needles called maxilla pierce the skin and two other needles called mandibles hold the hole open then the mosquito inserts its other two needles one of them the hypopharynx injects an analgesic and an anticoagulant to prevent the victim from noticing the bite and it's blood from clotting the other needle the labrum sucks the blood it might take a couple of tries and a bit of probing until the mosquito finds the blood vessel this reminds me of most of my visits to the doctor as the blood fills the mosquitos abdomen the mosquito filters out the water from the blood so that I can pack more nutritious red blood cells once it's full the mosquito will leave having almost tripled its weight the itching and swelling comes later as the preys immune system kicks in and sends antibodies to go and destroy the remains of the mosquitos saliva at this point the mosquito is ready to lay eggs the specific location depends on the species and the environment it can range from ponds to mud to pitcher plants the eggs come in a variety of shapes but are most commonly laid as egg rafts and clutches of up to 300 eggs one or two days later they hatch as larvae or wrigglers they can immediately swim and hunt small animals in the water column they're entirely aquatic but swim up to the surface to breathe through their respiratory siphon a small tube at the end of their tail and yes they breathe through their butts after two weeks they pupate the comma-shaped pupae are known as tumblers they can still swim but they stop eating for up to four days during this period they breathe through two breathing tubes called trumpets when the mature mosquito emerges from the water it will first look for nectar for sustenance but their life is so short they only live for between four and six weeks and they immediately switch gears to reproduction they go cruisin for a bruisin most mosquitoes only get one blood meal in their life those who bite multiple people are the ones who spread disease if a mosquito bites an infected person it can host their viruses and bacteria and if it bites another person it can transmit those pathogens it's essentially like sharing needles the fight against mosquito-borne diseases is ongoing no definitive battles have ever been won but very interesting strategies have been deployed non fighting male mosquitoes with a self suppressing gene are being released into the wild when they mate with normal females that produce offspring with a low chance of survival past that pupa stage this reduces the number of mosquitoes over time another strategy is infecting mosquitoes with the wool baqia bacteria which increases their resistance to RNA viruses such as the dengue and West Nile the mosquitoes will eventually transmit the bacteria to other mosquitoes increasing their herd immunity to these viruses this strategy is preferable as it doesn't decrease the number of mosquitoes in the world which would throw ecosystems out of balance it simply prevents those mosquitoes that are vectors for disease from contracting the diseases in the first place as of today mosquito-borne diseases still kill over 700,000 people a year as the earth warms mosquitoes are able to expand their range dramatically increasing their ability to transmit diseases but in the future new strategies will be used larvae eating fish improved sanitation practices and advanced parasitoids will be used to fight mosquito-borne diseases and then a better world will be possible a world with fewer mosquito bites it's hard to talk about mosquitoes without delving into just how horrific the diseases they carry can be these are the biggest killers in the world carrying some of the scariest diseases on the planet talking about diseases like Zika in specifics was beyond the scope of this episode but if you want a quick primer on it you should watch the dangers of the Zika virus which is streaming right now on curiosity stream this helpful explainer video runs down where the virus came from what it does it's links to microcephaly how mosquitoes transmit it and what people can do to protect themselves if you're out of the loop or just want to learn more about the Zika virus you should check it out it's fast paced informative and concise when you're done with that you can watch viruses destruction and creation which is a much deeper dive on the spread of the Zika virus throughout the world and how the evolution of viruses are tied to our own it is a fascinating and at times devastating documentary that really gave me a better understanding of the effects of mosquito-borne diseases like Zika both of these are really interesting and you can watch them for free just go to curiosity stream dot-com lush animal logic and claim your 30-day free trial with the promo code animal logic I love watching documentaries and curiosity stream is the best place to watch it's a subscription streaming service that has over 2400 titles many of which are fascinating nature documentaries if you're looking for something smart to binge this weekend you should sign up for curiosity stream so what animal should I talk about next please let me know in the comments and be sure to subscribe for new episodes of animal logic every other week thanks for watching [Music]

Channel: Animalogic

Views: 599,036

Rating: 4.8806863 out of 5

Keywords: animals, animal, logic, education, show, animalogic, crazy, ugly, weird, gross, beautiful, interesting, facts, animalsfacts, about, information, research, learn, learning, fun, easy, smart, mosquito, zika, mosquitoes, pandemic, health, deadly, bite, blood-sucking, mosquito bite, disease, macro, micro, sucking, repellent, documentary, insect, anopheles, aedes aegypti, blood, dengue, west nile virus, zika virus, malaria, dengue dever, chikungunya, outbreak, close up, up close, zoom in, bbc, microcephaly, symptoms, killer, venom

Id: fVLk0ZGgCqY

Length: 10min 45sec (645 seconds)

Published: Fri May 10 2019

Reddit Comments

[u/scheckydamon]

Anybody ever pull your skin tight and watch them explode from your blood pressure? It's very satisfying.

[u/meowiemom19]

Nasty little creatures.