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Chicken odour repels malaria mosquitoes, research in Ethiopia finds

bbc.co.uk

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Re: Chicken odour repels malaria mosquitoes, research in Ethiopia finds

#21

Post by mrob »

cronjobber wrote: post #18

> the compounds from the smell of the chicken can be extracted and could work as a repellent Might actually work as long as only a statistically insignificant minority of ppl is using it. After that point, it's Darwin all over again.

DEET has been in use as an insect repellent since 1946. Insensitive mutant insects are known but in most cases it's still effective. The more distinct mechanisms of action we have available the less likely insensitivity will become a problem, so it's worth identifying the active compound in chicken odor.

Re: Chicken odour repels malaria mosquitoes, research in Ethiopia finds

#22

Post by m_eiman »

runeks wrote: post #17

As I understand it, the issue is that, while it might repel them to begin with, mosquitos evolve quite rapidly, and sooner or later they will learn to ignore the repellent, and it will be ineffective. There are tons of substances that mosquitos and insects find repelling. We have mapped the receptor in mosquitos which, when activated, make them shy away from a substance. But if it doesn't kill the mosquitos, or damag…

Not if they can live their lives as usual everywhere else, then the evolutionary pressure to adapt is low. Assuming you spray only houses.

Re: Chicken odour repels malaria mosquitoes, research in Ethiopia finds

#23

Post by Vivtek »

mabbo wrote: post #3

Mosquitoes would only avoid something if being near it made them less likely to reproduce successfully. Seeing that, we've decided to surround ourselves with those things. This concerns me a little.

I'm pretty sure if there were a negative effect of chickens on our reproductive rate, we would have discovered it any time in the last couple thousand years living in proximity to chickens.

That said, they do stink. I don't blame the mosquitoes at all.

Re: Chicken odour repels malaria mosquitoes, research in Ethiopia finds

#24

Post by [deleted] »

eric-hu wrote: post #16
danblick wrote: post #9

Poppycock. It is widely known that miasmas such as chicken odour are the source of disease, not a cure. In fact even the name "malaria" means "bad air" for this reason. """ For when the morning breezes blow toward the town at sunrise, if they bring with them mist from marshes and, mingled with the mist, the poisonous breath of creatures of the marshes to be wafted into the bodies of the inhabitants, they will make th…

Is this meant to be satire?

[deleted]

Re: Chicken odour repels malaria mosquitoes, research in Ethiopia finds

#25

Post by JshWright »

runeks wrote: post #17

As I understand it, the issue is that, while it might repel them to begin with, mosquitos evolve quite rapidly, and sooner or later they will learn to ignore the repellent, and it will be ineffective. There are tons of substances that mosquitos and insects find repelling. We have mapped the receptor in mosquitos which, when activated, make them shy away from a substance. But if it doesn't kill the mosquitos, or damag…

I assume this works because the mosquitoes don't want to get eaten. Unless this somehow causes chickens to evolve to no longer eat mosquitoes, it seems unlikely this effect would diminish over time.

Re: Chicken odour repels malaria mosquitoes, research in Ethiopia finds

#26

Post by runeks »

runeks wrote: post #17

As I understand it, the issue is that, while it might repel them to begin with, mosquitos evolve quite rapidly, and sooner or later they will learn to ignore the repellent, and it will be ineffective. There are tons of substances that mosquitos and insects find repelling. We have mapped the receptor in mosquitos which, when activated, make them shy away from a substance. But if it doesn't kill the mosquitos, or damag…

While looking for a different paper, which shows that mosquitos can adapt to certain repellents, I discovered that the paper from above has been retracted: http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/natu...

I will post a link to the other paper if I find it.

Re: Chicken odour repels malaria mosquitoes, research in Ethiopia finds

#27

Post by taco_emoji »

cronjobber wrote: post #18

> the compounds from the smell of the chicken can be extracted and could work as a repellent Might actually work as long as only a statistically insignificant minority of ppl is using it. After that point, it's Darwin all over again.

Only if "not being repelled by chicken smells" conferred a large enough selective advantage over "being repelled by chicken smells". Mosquitoes have plenty of other animals to bite besides humans, so it's not immediately apparent that it would change selection pressures at all, much less to the degree needed to push the population genotype in one direction or the other.

Re: Chicken odour repels malaria mosquitoes, research in Ethiopia finds

#29

Post by taco_emoji »

runeks wrote: post #17

As I understand it, the issue is that, while it might repel them to begin with, mosquitos evolve quite rapidly, and sooner or later they will learn to ignore the repellent, and it will be ineffective. There are tons of substances that mosquitos and insects find repelling. We have mapped the receptor in mosquitos which, when activated, make them shy away from a substance. But if it doesn't kill the mosquitos, or damag…

> But if it doesn't kill the mosquitos, or damage them, they will eventually learn that it's unharmful, and it will no longer be effective.

If a repellent stimulus no longer harms them, that doesn't automatically mean there's any strong advantage to not being repelled anymore.

(And I would avoid uses phrases like "learn" to describe this behavior. A population of mosquitoes may evolve to no longer be repelled by chicken smells, but that doesn't mean they're remotely aware of it.)

Re: Chicken odour repels malaria mosquitoes, research in Ethiopia finds

#30

Post by [deleted] »

runeks wrote: post #17

As I understand it, the issue is that, while it might repel them to begin with, mosquitos evolve quite rapidly, and sooner or later they will learn to ignore the repellent, and it will be ineffective. There are tons of substances that mosquitos and insects find repelling. We have mapped the receptor in mosquitos which, when activated, make them shy away from a substance. But if it doesn't kill the mosquitos, or damag…

[deleted]
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