Book Review: The Mosquito Book by Brett Ortler

Scientists enter 3,500+ worldwide mosquito species -- with 166 in the United States of America -- in the 480-member Anophelinae and 3,000-member Culicinae subfamilies within the Diptera true-fly insect order’s  Culicidae family. They find three genera medically significant as:

• egg rafts by stagnant water-loving Culex or singles by floodwater-loving Aedes and freshwater-loving Anopheles for post-blood-meal hatching in appropriately humid heat within 30 hours to 3 days;
• larvae, wriggling instars of four molts and predators of algae, phytoplankton, single-cell organisms for 7 – 10 days;
• pupae; and
• adults mating as buzzing females with dancing males, sipping fruit and nectar sugars, and taking amino acid-rich blood-meal (preferentially livestock and specially sheep).

All three genera go foraging at dawn and dusk. 

Flying Syringes have morphological differences:

• Aedes and Culex hover vertically and siphon-breathe from water surfaces;
• Aedes, Anopheles, and Culex jacket respectively pointed, slanted, and blunted abdomens; and
• Anopheles lie parallel to surfaces for abdominal tube-breathing.

They individualize terror:

• Aedes’ Dengue and yellow fevers;
• Anopheles’ malaria-transmitting Plasmodium parasites; and
• Culex’s encephalitis, West Nile Virus.

Researchers judge as mosquito-attractants:

• black, blue, green, grey, khaki, red, khaki, yellow;
• beer, carbon dioxide, lactic acid, sweat odor plumes;
• movement; and
• Staphylococcus epidermidis bacteria.

They know as ineffective:

• Avon;
• Bacillus thuringiensis israelensis dunks, bamboo citronella torches, bananas, bats;
• Listerine;
• purple martins;
• sonic/ultrasonic devices;
• Vicks, vitamins;
• wristbands; and
• zappers.

Control looks to:

• DEET;
• IR3535;
• lemon eucalyptus oil;
• permethrin, picaridin, pyrethrum;
• quinine; and
• sweet wormwood.

So The Mosquito Book: An Entertaining, Fact-filled Look at the Dreaded Pesky Bloodsuckers provides readers culturally enriching, educationally entertaining insights into life cycles, natural histories, and practical controls, with:

• Adventure Publications, Inc.;
• Sandy Brogren, Metropolitan Mosquito Control District;
• Janice Haney Carr, Roger Culos, Ben Knight-Gregson, Segrid McAllister, Joel Mills, Elizabeth Perez, Harry Weinburgh, photographers;
• Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Public Health Imagery Library;
• Frank Hadley Collins and Woodbridge Foster, professors;
• James Gathany, University of Notre Dame;
• Jackie George and Beverly Sinclair, Sickle Cell Foundation of Georgia;
• Steven Glenn;
• Malaria Journal;
• Drs. Mae Melvin, Pratt;
• National Institutes of Health PubMed database;
• Brett Ortler, author;
• PLOS ONE;
• Walter Reed Biosystematics Unit; and
• Lora Westberg, book and cover design. 

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Partly broken egg raft of a Culex species shows individual egg shapes in newly created (two weeks) pond west of Munch, near city border, southeastern Germany.
image obtained June 7, 2007, 14:14, via binocular's okular with digital camera: Steffen Dietzel, Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Gelege1.jpg

Staphylococcus epidermidis colonies: Hardy microorganism numbers among normal human microflora, especially skin, and attracts mosquitoes.
Staphylococcus epidermidis on Tryptic Soy Agar; cultivation 24 hours, 37°C. (98.6°F.)
HansN., CC BY SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Staphylococcus_epidermidis_colonies_on_Tryptic_Soy_Agar.jpg

Sweet wormwood (Artemisia annua): Extracts such as leaf juice serve as natural mosquito repellents.
Mosquitoes shy away from sweet wormwood; break off a leaf from the plant and rub on skin for immediate effectiveness.
Beaver, Raleigh County, soutthern West Virginia: Jorge Ferreira, Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Artemisia_annua_West_Virginia.jpg

Native to northeastern Queensland in the Land Down Under, lemon eucalyptus trees (Corymbia citriodora), also known as lemon-scented gum, waft an aroma repugnant to mosquitoes.
An extract from the tree's leaves and twigs serves as an effective repellent and a natural alternative to chemical products such as DEET.
Botanic Garden Zoo (also called Wagga Zoo) at Wagga Wagga Botanic Gardens, southeastern New South Wales, southeast Australia: Bidgee, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Corymbia_citriodora.jpg

Anopheles stephensi (Asian malaria mosquito; Indo-Pakistan malaria mosquito) is a known malarial vector with a distribution range from Egypt to China.
Engorged female Anopheles stephensi expels blood from abdomen while obtaining human host blood meal via pointed proboscis.: Jim Gathany, CDC Public Health Image Library (PHIL) @ https://phil.cdc.gov/details.aspx?pid=5814

DEET (N,N-diethyl-meta-toluamide), developed by U.S. Army in 1946, is an effective chemical repellent that blocks insects' olfactory receptors and also exudes an odor that mosquitoes dislike.
Health issues such as insomnia, mood swings, seizures, and skin irritations may be experienced via products with concentrations of DEET well in excess of 30 percent.
DEET-based products include Cutter Skinsations, DEET Plus, Off! and Ultrathon; Image no. K7243-10: Photo by Scott Bauer, Public Domain, via USDA Agricultural Research Service (ARS) @ https://www.ars.usda.gov/oc/images/photos/k7243-10/

Ortler, Brett. 2014. The Mosquito Book: An Entertaining, Fact-filled Look at the Dreaded Pesky Bloodsuckers. Cambridge, MN: Adventure Publications, Inc.