The Mosquito Nazi

Hello readers! Today, I was reading a pretty weird article in the guardian about how in the past, the Nazis once considered using mosquitoes as biological weapons during the second world war, revealed through research on scientists at an institute in Dachau conducting research into how malaria-infected insects could be kept alive long enough to be released into enemy territory. In January 1942, SS leader, Heinrich Himmler, ordered the creation of the Dachau entomological institute. Its official mission was to find new remedies against diseases transmitted by lice and other insects as German troops were often plagued by typhoid, and there were concerns about a developing typhoid epidemic. In 1944, scientists examined different types of mosquitoes for their life spans in order to establish whether they could be kept alive long enough to be transported from a breeding lab to a drop-off point. At the end of the trials, the director of the institute recommended a particular type of anopheles mosquito, a genus well-known for its capacity to transmit malaria to humans. Research was carried out in secret due to Germany having signed up to the 1925 Geneva protocol ruling out the use of biological and chemical weapons during WW2. So, moving on from that interesting little historical fact, this post will be in dedication to mosquitoes!

The Mosquito 

• Mosquitoes are insects that have been around for more than 30 million years.
• They have a battery of sensors designed to track their prey, including chemical sensors (they can sense carbon dioxide and lactic acid up to 100 feet away. Mammals and birds give off these gases during respiration. Certain chemicals in sweat also seem to attract mosquitoes), visual sensors (clothing that contrasts with the background and movement in that clothing can be seen by mosquitoes and they can zero in on you, as with anything moving, it is alive, therefore full of blood), and heat sensors (they can detect heat, so that they can find warm-blooded mammals and birds very easily once they get close enough)
• They have three basic body parts: the head where all the senors are along with the biting apparatus. The head has two compound eyes, antennae to sense chemicals and the the mouth parts called the palpus and the proboscis (only females have the proboscis, for biting), the thorax where it has two wings and six legs attached, contains flight muscles, compound heat and some nerve cell ganglia and trachioles (small airways that allow for respiration), and the abdomen which contains the digestive and excretory organs
• Mosquitoes hatch from eggs and go through several stages in their life cycle before becoming adults. The females lay their eggs in water, and the larva and pupa stages live entirely in water. When the pupa change into adults, they leave the water and become free-flying land insects. The life cycle of a mosquito can vary from one to several weeks depending upon the species (the adult, mated females of some species can survive the winter in cool, damp places until spring, when they will lay their eggs and die.)
• Female mosquitoes are attracted by several things, including heat (infrared light), light, perspiration, body odor, lactic acid and carbon dioxide. The female lands on your skin and sticks her proboscis into you, so sharp and thin you may not even feel it going in, and her saliva contains proteins (anticoagulants) that prevent your blood from clotting. She sucks your blood into her abdomen. If she is disturbed, she will fly away. Otherwise, she will remain until she has a full abdomen. If you were to cut the sensory nerve to her abdomen, she would keep sucking until she burst.
• After she has bitten you, some saliva remains in the wound. The proteins from the saliva evoke an immune response from your body. The area swells (the bump around the bite area is called a wheal), and you itch, a response provoked by the saliva. Eventually, the swelling goes away, but the itch remains until your immune cells break down the saliva proteins.

Thanks for reading!