[HN Gopher] Scientists discover how mosquitoes can 'sniff out' h...
___________________________________________________________________
Scientists discover how mosquitoes can 'sniff out' humans
Author : signa11
Score : 68 points
Date : 2022-08-19 06:07 UTC (1 days ago)
(HTM) web link (www.theguardian.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.theguardian.com)
| jokoon wrote:
| This is what pushed me to wash myself often, not sure if it
| works.
| atum47 wrote:
| It always amazes me this kind of break through. I hate mosquitoes
| with all my heart. Hopefully some good repellent will come out of
| this discovery.
| telchior wrote:
| I've been playing with the idea of an indoor mosquito capture
| device, so this study is interesting to me on a number of levels.
| (In case you're wondering why this would be any more difficult
| than outdoor capture: almost all of these devices burn propane or
| similar to generate the CO2, making them dangerous for indoor
| use.)
|
| Here's a study from 2014, linked in the paper, where they edited
| out the ability to sense CO2; the Aedes aegypti mosquitoes could
| still home in on people:
| https://www.cell.com/cell/fulltext/S0092-8674(14)00155-X
|
| Most mosquito capture devices are just CO2 + heat; some are CO2 +
| heat + odor. I haven't seen one so far that just combines heat +
| odor, although maybe there's something out there.
|
| Different species of mosquito are attracted to different
| chemicals, which helps explain why some people get targeted a lot
| and others not so much. Here's a random fact I just learned from
| another of the linked studies: Ae. aegypti are attracted to
| ammonia. I guess the variability helps complicate making a
| general-purpose machine that will work anywhere.
|
| Also, some species prefer humans over other animals... I think
| they can still get confused, though. For instance, when I'm
| hanging out with my black cat, the mosquitoes all gravitate to
| him. The study suggests that mosquito sensory cues diminish with
| distance (duh, I guess), but perhaps some cues become predominant
| as the mosquitoes get closer. I've wondered if wearing patches of
| black fur on my forearms might help attract them to a specific
| location; haven't found any product that does that, either.
|
| One more random observation from the study: they're using a
| pretty neat little membrane feeder full of blood to test the
| mosquitoes. I'd heard of past studies where human lab assistants
| just stuck in an arm to be fed on. I guess it's lucky for the
| assistants that they've advanced past that, but I'd also read
| that they acclimate fairly quickly. I wonder: would anyone be up
| for intentionally exposing themselves like that? I've been
| getting bitten by the same species for a year and still have skin
| reactions; personally, I think if someone offered me a few days
| of suffering to gain a resistance, I'd go for it!
| brap wrote:
| > I've wondered if wearing patches of black fur on my forearms
| might help attract them to a specific location
|
| I've been running this experiment for about 2 decades now,
| involuntarily, and my conclusion is no.
| CatWChainsaw wrote:
| Serious question, is there _anything_ good about mosquitos? They
| 're famously the most 'dangerous' organisms to humans thanks to
| their spread of malaria, and per the article at least some
| species are tailored to prey on humans over other animals. Their
| spit is what makes you itchy, and when they need to detach from
| your skin they piss on you to make it easier.
| chrisco255 wrote:
| I think bats favor them. Lots of birds eat them too. But is
| there anything "good" about any creature? Everything just
| exists for its own survival.
| mattigames wrote:
| Its clear that "good" or "bad" in this context means if it
| helps in any way any other species (including us) or
| environment, and given that it stings a lot of animals
| causing them some pain it already has some points on "bad".
| vocram wrote:
| > causing them some pain it already has some points on
| "bad".
|
| Humans have quite a few bad points here as well.
| version_five wrote:
| > it stings a lot of animals causing them some pain
|
| Isn't pushing back on animals, in particular apex predator
| types, "good" in some natural sense. Making areas
| uninhabitable (except I assume for species that have
| evolved, or will evolve, some kind of symbiosis) seems like
| an important role. Any lifeform that gets an open field
| will just grow until they run out of food or invite disease
| or whatever. Unfavorable parasites or whatever you want to
| call them are an important part of the balance, even if
| they are clearly bad from the perspective of whoever
| they're feeding on.
| swatcoder wrote:
| They transfer food from large animals near the top of the food
| chain to small animals nearer the bottom, by air and over a
| range of several miles.
|
| They might not be the only thing that can do the job, but it's
| an important job.
| DiggyJohnson wrote:
| Isn't the top of the food chain where we see the biggest
| thread to biodiversity.
|
| This reminds me of my favorite term from any college course:
| "charismatic megafauna."
| buu700 wrote:
| Is this actually a useful effect of mosquitoes? It seems like
| any organisms that feed on waste and corpses would accomplish
| the same thing but better.
| brap wrote:
| This is a very interesting way to think about mosquitoes.
| bombcar wrote:
| I've heard they do some percentage of pollination.
| xen2xen1 wrote:
| Disease is a form of population control in a survival of the
| fittest sort of way. They're probably much more useful than
| we'd like to think in the long run. Scarily, we're replacing
| all those mechanisms with us..
| peaslock wrote:
| Perhaps they induce immunity to novel viruses by transferring
| them in small doses between very different animals. Just
| guessing though.
| scottlamb wrote:
| I once saw an article asking biologists this very question. I
| wish I could find it.
|
| What I recall is:
|
| * some species of mosquitos are an important part of
| ecosystems, e.g. a big chunk of biomass in tundra regions. (I
| didn't even know there were any mosquitos there!)
|
| * but the specific species that carry malaria: no. They gave
| some general platitudes about niches and every species being
| important... Almost. These ones, kill them all. The important
| stuff these mosquitos do can be done by other insects.
|
| Edit: https://www.nature.com/articles/466432a looks pretty
| similar to what I read. Either this one is slightly more
| nuanced or my memory dropped some of the nuance.
| fuzzythinker wrote:
| The majority of mosquitos are "good", they are food for
| species and they pollinate plants.
|
| https://www.npr.org/2016/02/19/467395225/mosquitoes-what-
| are...
| s0rce wrote:
| Mosquitos are notoriously bad in Alaska and Northern Canada,
| I assume other areas are similar.
| ch4s3 wrote:
| Mosquitoes get a lot of shoutouts in The GULAG Archipelago.
| zionic wrote:
| Not at all. Only a small fraction of mosquito species bite
| humans, we could eliminate them without impacting the
| environment negatively.
| brianpan wrote:
| Serious answer in the form of a question:
|
| What is good about humans or dogs or trees? What does good even
| mean- how do you define it? Good in what sense?
| 11235813213455 wrote:
| good is what help maintaining life as a whole, so a human
| with a high carbon footprint is more bad than good, but a
| lizard or a bird plays a role in the ecosystem, and at least
| doesn't have a negative pollution impact, so they're not bad
|
| trees: that's the symbol of life, of usefulness, they help to
| improve life in the ground and around, hold humidity, store
| carbon for most of them, are homes of many species, provide
| food, ...
|
| dogs or any pets: not useful at all for the ecosystem,
| actually detrimental from their food
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pet_food#Impact and other
| services dedicated to them and their direct negative impact
| on the local wild life
|
| mosquitoes: useful because their larva feed a large
| ecosystem, they also feed other insects, they also pollinate
| Shugarl wrote:
| Good if it's useful to us humans, bad if it's harmful.
| 11235813213455 wrote:
| For example wasps are extremely precious, for their role in
| pollination, in the ecosystem in general
| https://www.thoughtco.com/what-good-are-wasps-1968081
|
| But I'm sure most people will say they're bad because of
| the risk of a bite, neglicting and/or ignoring how they
| indirectly help us to live
| nkrisc wrote:
| I generally share the same view but it seems pretty clear to
| me they're asking from the perspective of human benefit.
| zzo38computer wrote:
| I think that mosquitoes should not be eliminated, whether they
| bite humans or not. The other kind of animals (including human)
| can live. You (and other living thing in this world) can (and
| should) defend yourself but that is not the right to destroy
| everything.
|
| What is good of human? To be bitten by mosquito. What is good
| of mosquito? To be bitten by fish (according to another comment
| below). What is good of fish? To be bitten by human. (Of
| course, this is overly the simplification, but I hope to
| explain the point that I am trying to make.)
| DiggyJohnson wrote:
| Absolute nihilism of all living things probably isn't as
| obvious a philosophy as your comment makes it seem.
|
| If nothing in life is valuable, including life itself, what
| gives? Do you still value less suffering over more suffering?
| Am I misunderstanding your perspective?
| Bud wrote:
| This might be a bit brutal, but to be honest: yeah. They kill a
| lot of humans. And humans very much need to be killed. There
| are way too many of us, and we're doing an awfully good job of
| wiping out Earth's biodiversity and long-term carrying
| capacity.
| beebeepka wrote:
| I do believe there are too many of us humans on this planet
| but something tells me we can do much better than culling
| ourselves.
| xen2xen1 wrote:
| Thanos enters the building..
| mmmpop wrote:
| Yeah but is that justice?
| 11235813213455 wrote:
| it's more natural selection than being rammed down on your
| bike by a car
| cm2012 wrote:
| Great idea! Maybe start with yourself first though before
| sacrificing others.
| zzo38computer wrote:
| Yes, there are too many humans; the human population is too
| much. But, that does not mean that you have to kill everyone;
| that is no good. However, if you eliminate all of the
| mosquitoes, then that is also no good.
|
| You must have right to defend yourself (from humans and from
| nonhumans), and mosquitoes and other animal also must have
| the right to defend themself (from humans and from
| nonhumans). However, this is not to be done by eliminating
| populations, or by starting by attacking all of the
| animals/plants.
|
| Animal also might attack other animal/plants for food also
| will be needed though, including human and nonhuman. (And
| then, if there is an attack then also will be the defense.)
|
| Humans should stop damaging the environment/world (including
| the parts of the environment/world which are harmful to
| humans). Many human hopefully should be having less children
| too, in order to reduce future population; that is better
| than committing suicide or by having a war. (While, some
| other animal (and possibly some plants too, but not human (at
| this time)) are endangered species and might need to have
| more children.)
| comonoid wrote:
| Water-born(?) insects transfer fertilizing elements from water
| back to the land.
| fennecfoxen wrote:
| Borne, as in, 'carried', derivative of the verb 'to bear'
| simcop2387 wrote:
| They're food for fish and other animals. That's about all I can
| think of that gives them a use of any kind.
| saiya-jin wrote:
| If you take selfish human-only view, nothing good there. But
| there is tons of them and they are important part of food chain
| even if they are tiny.
|
| If we could selectively just eliminate those 2-3 sub-species
| that transfer malaria, dengue and say zika or yellow fever from
| human perspective the negative impact on environment compared
| to positive impact on often weakest and poorest part of mankind
| if... well incomparable. Ecosystem would take a hit but I can't
| seriously put half a million of human lives yearly, often small
| children, against some blip in our environment, which would in
| few years balance itself out into new equilibrium (probably
| with more insect of some other type taking the place) and
| choose insects.
|
| What I would eliminate outright without any remorse are ticks.
| They are not that important in food chain, and are scourge for
| both humans and many animals.
| hedora wrote:
| Apparently there's an approved Lyme disease vaccine in the
| US, but they decided there isn't a sufficient market, and
| stopped production.
|
| Now if we could selectively just eliminate those 2-3 sub-
| species of bean counters responsible for this sort of
| decision...
| yyyk wrote:
| The story is significantly more complicated:
|
| https://slate.com/technology/2021/07/lyme-vaccine-history-
| ly...
| s0rce wrote:
| Trials are going for a new one.
| brianpan wrote:
| If you're interested in how animals use their senses, how about a
| whole book about it: https://bookshop.org/books/an-immense-world-
| how-animal-sense...
|
| _An Immense World_ by Ed Yong, who wrote a lot of the great early
| Covid articles for The Atlantic.
| quercusa wrote:
| My family has always debated this question: Do some people get
| bitten more by mosquitoes or do they just react more?
| latchkey wrote:
| Both.
|
| Over time, you can develop a tolerance to the bites. I
| definitely had this happen while living in SE Asia for 4
| years... when I first moved to Vietnam, I had bites all over,
| after a while, I stopped reacting to the bites almost entirely.
| amelius wrote:
| > Humans give off a fragrant cocktail of body odour, heat and
| carbon dioxide
|
| Could an increase in ambient CO2 mess with the mosquito's ability
| to locate us?
| ChuckNorris89 wrote:
| Maybe, but an increase of ambient CO2 would mess with our
| ability to breathe properly so it doesn't sound like a great
| strategy.
|
| What I found helps is a fan blowing on you to disrupt the
| pockets of CO2 pooling around you as you breathe in your sleep.
| jbkkd wrote:
| The fan trick works because they can't stabilize well enough
| in wind to land on you.
___________________________________________________________________
(page generated 2022-08-20 23:00 UTC)