161–170 of 195 posts
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In Sweden, they use helicopters to bomb the mosquitoes with the pesticide Vectobac G. http://www.thelocal.se/40512/20120427/
It is a shame that one of safest and most effective pesticides used to control mosquitoes and other disease-carrying insects, DDT, is no longer permitted in most countries.
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In Sweden, they use helicopters to bomb the mosquitoes with the pesticide Vectobac G. http://www.thelocal.se/40512/20120427/
It is a shame that one of safest and most effective pesticides used to control mosquitoes and other disease-carrying insects, DDT, is no longer permitted in most countries.
I'm absolutely not an expert but I was under the general impression that DDT is no longer permitted because it's not safe.
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It is a shame that one of safest and most effective pesticides used to control mosquitoes and other disease-carrying insects, DDT, is no longer permitted in most countries.
Citations? I'm absolutely not an expert but I was under the general impression that DDT is no longer permitted because it's not safe.
This is usually brought up as a weird rallying point for people with an ax to grind with Silent Spring, nevermind the very real effects of DDT and nevermind the exemptions explicitly dealing with the objections raised.
I learned about this a couple of years ago visiting a friend of mine who lives in the Tigre Delta. It's sort of like a suburban version of Venice, except with a jungle, and lots and lots of enormous black mosquitoes. After a while sitting in her living room talking to her, I wondered aloud why we weren't getting bitten by mosquitoes, and she pointed out the electric fan overhead and explained it discouraged the mosqu…
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4 year olds from India are not the target audience of the New York Times. It's a good thing when something known to one culture is shared with another.
yeah.. but I'd expect a publication of such reputation to dig deeper than that. The ideas mentioned don't even scratch the surface. Hence the reference to "4 year olds".
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Actually, there would be little to no downside to eradicating mosquitoes: http://www.nature.com/news/2010/100721/full/466432a.html
I know, but does that really feel right? Sort of the height of arrogance to me. "Let's take something super prevalent and remove it entirely and I'm sure we'll have a zero sum gain" Maybe it's true though.
On a serious note, though, I would like to see the human race reach the level of modeling and engineering sophistication to be able to eradicate mosquitoes with no harm to ourselves or the species we depend on. We've basically eradicated numerous microscopic species, and accidentally driven some very large species to extinction; we might as well do it to mosquitoes. Think of how great it would be to eliminate malaria and all other mosquito-borne illnesses.
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That is an incomplete summary of her credentials... Hello! I’m a freelance science journalist living in New York with my ball python, Agamemnon Fang. I spent the last few years as a marine geochemist by day, contributing editor for CBS SmartPlanet at night. Before that, I was a news intern for Nature in Washington, D.C., an editorial intern at Discover in New York, and a reporter for the infamous Point Reyes Light in…
Rather than summarize her credentials, I was attempting to point out that perhaps an intern writer at Nature.com is not someone we can refer to as "a scientist" and reference as such. Yes, she has a degree and experience. No, I'm not prepared to accept interns 2 years out of college as authoritative experts when it comes to planetwide ecological policy.
This is a guide to entering your house with the airlock system:
Step 0: Open outside door to arctic entrance
Step 1: Run inside with your groceries/supplies
Step 2: Close outside entrance
Step 3: Nuke the arctic entrance, RAID Wasp Killer is the recommended chemical
Step 4: Open inside door and walk the through ``Magic Mesh''[1] to reduce amount of nuke-immune mosquitos entering your house.
Step 5: Go take a shower to ensure your skin won't corrode
I've been using this system for 8 years now, and love it.
Another method I see my neighbours employ, is beekeeping suits laced with uranium. This method is great, because the mosquitos that attempt to land on the suit become fertile 8 out of 10 times. The suits can be purchased for around $10 outside the local Canadian Tire.
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[1] http://img.hisupplier.com/var/userImages/2012-03/23/16422286...
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Locally most of the nature trails are built thru swamps (aka eco warriors holy wetlands). They're economically worthless, so they make nice parks and trails. The point of the article is they can't fly faster than 2 mph or so. Simply move faster than 2 MPH. I've ridden my bicycle thru swamps and not gotten bit. I also hike and between walking and a bit of wind there is not much problem as long as I don't stop. A bug i…
Got any solutions for horse flies? Those things are brutal.
Spend a summer up in the Yukon or Alaska if you want to see solid walls of ravenous mosquitoes. I get bitten while riding my bike, bitten while my arm is out of the car window driving at 30km/h, and bitten through jeans. 100% DEET (you can get it in Alaska) does the trick for about 30 minutes before you have to re-apply - and it's nasty stuff. This past weekend I was camping at a music festival and slapped my arm cas…
Before sleeping, I'd close all the windows and doors and spray the toxic anti-mosquito product. After half an hour, I'd go in and find all the fallen mosquito's and squish them, since they weren't actually dead, just stunned. After a while they would just get up and fly away if I didn't do anything. Then, I'd use an electric zapper to find the remaining ones which were unaffected by the spray. Then, before sleeping I'd light a mosquito repellent, and also apply a mosquito repellent to my hands and feet to keep them away.
Only the above regimen worked. Skipping any of the above meant I'd be slapping away angry buzzing mosquito's the rest of the night.
Fans wouldn't do jack to slow them down. The only other thing which was semi-effective was cooling down the room with an AC. They seemed to get a bit slow then.
