Mosquitoes on Pitara Kids Network

The Bed Bug and the Mosquito

Fri, 01 Oct 1999 01:31:34 +0000

A long, long time ago there lived a bed bug. He had a huge family. There were children, grandchildren, and great grand children. They all lived together on a beautiful bed. They lived in the corners and crevices of the bed. And the huge, beautiful bed belonged to the king of the country.

When the king slept, the bug and his entire family used to crawl out of their home. They would wait for the king to drift off to deep sleep and then feast on the king’s blood. The king’s blood was sweet, as sweet can be and they relished their meal.

Mosquito Menace

Tue, 10 Dec 2002 06:57:42 +0000

Guess what besides fat raindrops, rain clouds in Mumbai bring? Those tiny terrors, mosquitoes. Result: nights spent tossing and turning, and swatting the insects. But the next morning you wake up with those tell tale red marks on your arms, pause to think if you took a bath or not the previous night.

That’s right. Human sweat turns mosquitoes on more than anything else. Research carried out by scientists in The Netherlands say that mosquitoes are actually quite finicky about whom they sting and never ever nibble at random. They find sweaty people absolutely irresistible however and the more stale the sweat the better. Yuck!

Flightless Mosquitoes the Solution to Dengue Fever?

Sat, 05 Jun 2010 19:41:21 +0000

Where: Oxford, United Kingdom

February 27, 2010 :Scientists have come up with a novel method to tackle the menace of dengue fever. They propose to breed mosquitoes that cant fly. The plan is to genetically alter the male of the species. These males will father a new generation of female mosquitoes with limited wing growth. The females will continue to transmit these genes, but only to female offspring. The male offspring will remain unaffected. Scientists feel this is a safe way to fight the spread of dengue – safer than the use of insecticides. The chief researcher Luke Alphey of the University of Oxford said,“The technology is completely species-specific, as the released males will mate only with females of the same species.”