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They bite during the day and find humans tastier than the rest of the animal kingdom -- and that's exactly what makes the Aedes mosquito so dangerous. Well, that and the fact that it carries the Zika virus, which has terrified the globe. "There is the enemy," Dr. Tom Frieden, chief of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, told Congress as he projected an image of the bug on screen last week, calling for a massive effort -- with a staggering $1.8 billion price tag -- to combat the danger. The Zika virus is an obscure agent that festered...

Brazilian newspapers say the country's health minister has acknowledged the country is "badly losing the battle" against the mosquito that transmits Zika, a virus linked to a rare birth defect.

A little-known virus is causing a big fuss in Micronesia, the Pacific island nation partly managed by the United States. The Zika virus, spread by mosquitoes, produces an itchy rash, pinkeye, joint pain and fever. Since its discovery 60 years ago in an ill monkey in the Zika forest in Uganda, it has caused rare cases and outbreaks in Africa and Southeast Asia. There is no specific treatment or vaccine. Now Zika has made its first appearance in Micronesia, on the island of Yap, where health officials say there have been at least 42 confirmed cases and 65 probable ones....

These People Took DDT Pills In the 1970s to Prove it Was Safe In 1971 two people in North Hollywood started eating DDT pills every day. That's right, they willingly swallowed 10mg of poison every single day for three months. In front of witnesses. From the Associated Press: - Robert Loibl and his wife, Louise, hold 10-milligram capsules of DDT which they took in front of witnesses for 93 days at lunch time, June 10, 1971. Loibl said their total dosage was more than the average person consumes in 83 years. He said his wife's dandruff disappeared, their appetites perked...

More cases of chikungunya, a painful virus spread by mosquitos, are being reported across the country. The Centers for Disease Control has listed a total of 497 cases in the U.S. in 35 states, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands, 197 locally transmitted. Examiner.com reports that other state and local health agencies noted 40 cases, bringing the total to 537. The outbreak is due to a recent epidemic that started late last year in the Caribbean. The first two locally transmitted stateside cases were reported in Florida late last week. "The arrival of chikungunya virus, first in the tropical Americas...

The US Fish and Wildlife Service released the anxiously anticipated Draft Plan and Environmental Assessment for Mosquito Control for The Bandon Marsh National Wildlife Refuge on March 11, 2014, which was followed-up a week later with an open house in Bandon on March 18, 2014. The 209-page document was a thorough evaluation of the mosquito infestation with The USFWS repeatedly and rightfully admitting to the agency’s guilt as sole perpetrator of this biological disaster.

FORT WORTH (CBSDFW.COM) – With hundreds of human cases of the West Nile Virus being reported across Texas and more than a dozen related deaths in North Texas it seems some people are overreacting and calling 911 when they’re bitten by a mosquito. One woman called Fort Worth 911 requesting assistance because her young nephew had a bump on his arm.

New regulations from the Environmental Protection Agency that carry onerous requirements for permitting for applicators, increased threat of lawsuits, and crippling fines for violations have led the area's local spray operator to drop the aerial service. "This is thanks to the Obama EPA," Orchard City Mayor Don Suppes noted. Orchard City's aerial mosquito spraying program, begun several years ago to combat West Nile Virus, has been highly successful and popular with town residents, Suppes said. Various news accounts of new EPA spraying regulations point out the onerous permitting requirements and fines of up to $37,500 per day for violations. New...

He said: "We know that many mosquito species chemically detect and avoid pools containing specific predators. "As prey, they have evolved the ability to detect these cues or risk of predation. It has been a bumper British summer for mosquitos, with warm, wet weather providing the creatures with perfect breeding conditions. And experts say the increasing popularity of water butts in gardens has added to their numbers by provide additional hatching grounds. But protection from the biting insects could be at hand after researchers discovered a new way of repelling them – by pretending to be one of their predators....

The Galapagos giant tortoise and other iconic wildlife are facing a new threat from disease, as some of the islands' mosquitoes develop a taste for reptile blood. Scientists from the University of Leeds, the Zoological Society of London (ZSL) and the Galapagos National Park have discovered that while its mainland ancestors prefer the blood of mammals and the occasional bird, the Galapagos form of the black salt marsh mosquito (Aedes taeniorhynchus) has shifted its behaviour to feed mainly on reptiles – primarily Galapagos giant tortoises and marine iguanas. The findings raise fears that these changes could devastate the islands' unique...

Physicists have created a laser weapon that targets mosquitoes. It is hoped that by finding an effective weapon against mosquitoes, the incidence of malaria could be reduced. Today, malaria kills about one million people every year around the world. "We'd be delighted if we destabilize the human-mosquito balance of power," says Jordin Kare, an astrophysicist who once worked at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, the birthplace of some of the deadliest weapons known to man. More recently he worked on the mosquito laser, built from parts bought on eBay. According to a recent article in the Wall Street Journal, the...

TED, the annual gathering of the most pretentious people from the fields of technology, entertainment, and design, just got punk'd. Microsoft chairman Bill Gates released a swarm of mosquitos into the crowd. Ending malaria is a particular passion of Gates's, whose Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has spent millions fighting the disease. But he apparently didn't feel like TED attendees were taking the threat seriously. "Not only poor people should experience this," Gates said as he let the bugs loose on his audience, according to Facebook manager Dave Morin. (eBay founder Pierre Omidyar and Twitter CEO Ev Williams confirm the...

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation awarded 100,000 dollars each on Wednesday to scientists in 22 countries including funding for a Japanese proposal to turn mosquitos into "flying syringes" delivering vaccines.

- The chemical concerns some, but an official says it's safe and effective. NEWPORT NEWS - That heart- stopping roar you may have heard overhead Monday could mean fewer mosquito bites for the next two weeks. Langley Air Force Base deployed C-130 planes over Hampton, Poquoson and York County as part of a three-day mission to spray Hampton Roads with an insecticide that kills mosquitoes on contact. The planes whiz by at 200 mph and 150 feet from the ground to diffuse about a half-ounce of the chemical Dibrom per acre, said Mitch Burcham, pest control supervisor with Langley Air...

The six-year old U.S. outbreak of West Nile virus is a significant threat to public health and shows no signs of abating. Last year, there were more than 2,500 serious cases and 100 deaths. Still early in this year's West Nile virus season (there is a time lag during which animals are infected, mosquitoes convey the virus to humans, and the virus incubates until symptoms occur), the mosquito-borne virus has been found in animal hosts (primarily birds) in 44 states, and has caused almost a thousand serious infections and a score of deaths in humans in 36 states. As of...

August 15, 2005 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Communism and fascism, as horrifically bloody as their legacy has been, have a lesser death count attributed to them than the misguided worldwide ban on DDT enforced by the World Health Organization, international aid organizations and others. So reports John Jalsevac in the LifeSiteNews.com Special Report, Green Hands Dipped In Blood: The DDT Genocide.Rachel Carson’s book Silent Spring, decrying the supposedly great harm caused by all pesticides to the natural environment and humans was released in 1962 and eventually led to the ban on DDT, still the most effective, cheapest, and arguably the cleanest way...

Cinnamon oil is an environmentally friendly way to kill mosquito hatchlings, a Taiwanese study shows. It might even make bug repelling better smelling -- although whether cinnamon oil keeps adult mosquitoes from biting has yet to be tested. The findings, from Sen-Sung Cheng, a natural products chemist at National Taiwan University, and colleagues, appear in the July 14 issue of the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry. Current mosquito-control efforts often rely on organophosphate insecticides. Use of these agents has raised health and environmental concerns, Cheng and colleagues note, so they looked for a different approach. They noted that cinnamon...

MONTERREY, Mexico - Officials on the U.S.-Mexico border on Sunday stepped up efforts to contain a dengue outbreak in the Mexican city of Matamoros after health authorities confirmed 24 cases and suspected another 222.Matamoros Public Health Director Ernesto Chanes said six of the suspected cases of dengue in the 450,000-strong city were the potentially lethal hemorrhagic dengue strain. Although, he said to date no deaths had been reported.Matamoros city workers are spraying neighborhoods where dengue cases have been confirmed and soldiers are patrolling streets looking for stagnant pools of water to contain the outbreak and stop it spreading to...

Is West Nile more than we know? Ken Hamblin Special to the Denver Post Sunday, September 29, 2002 - It is getting tougher for U.S. health officials to soft-soap the American people about the potentially devastating impact of West Nile disease. After a summer of assuring us that West Nile wasn't a disease most Americans should be concerned ab out, government health officials recently jolted the public with their statement that the virus can be spread through the nation's blood supply during transfusions.All blood donations would most likely have to be screened for the virus, it was concluded. Screened, that...

Sorry I don't have a link, but it's been all over the news down here that FEMA has denied Louisiana's request for emergency West Nile assistance. Without going into the right or wrong of it (which to be honest I'm not sure about at this point), two things come to mind.... 1. I wonder if there's any relation to Foster's decision not to run against Mary Landrieu for Senate..ie, he knew he was going to get turned down and thus felt no obligation to play ball with the White House. 2. This WILL be a campaign issue in Louisiana and...