How to kill mosquitos? Use traps. Meet European #mosquito trap maker #Biogents
20y ago, researchers struggled to capture mosquitos. At Univ. of #Regensburg they started to research attractants, design better traps, and found Biogents
Today, their traps are the standard in research
1st picture: wind tunnel to test attractants for trap prototypes
2nd picture, mosquitos captured in a sticky paper of an "ovitrap", luring females to lay eggs there
John Cleese acts as "Q", head of research for James Bond. Who are the European "Qs" when fighting mosquitos? 🦟🇪🇺
#INOVEC project: scientists from 21 organisations, 13 countries, from Universities, Research Centres and private companies. In science, the "European Perspective" is built-in 🦟🔬
There are 3 other European projects: #IDAlert, DURABLE, and #E4Warning 🦟⚠️
The combat against invasive #mosquito and tropical diseases relies on solid scientific knowledge
Tiger mosquitos arrived by boat, and then travelled by car.
In #Italy, it was first observed in 1990, in the port of #Genoa. Most likely, it arrived in a shipment of used tyres: water accumulated inside the tyres is irresistible for female mosquitos to lay eggs.
Once ashore, they get into your car and travel on it. This diagram from Le Monde shows how their expansion follows the road network.
"Kostas and the Sterile Male Insect - setting the stage for the European War on Mosquitos"
New article published in The European Perspective, just hit the "publish" button from the train!
This is the story of Kostas and Elena, who live in Northern Italy, had friends over for dinner this summer, and were drawn into a bloody battle at sundown.
The second decade of the 21st century is truly a bounteous time. My backyard has produced a bumper crop of an invasive species of mosquito that is genuinely innovative: rather than confining itself to biting in the dusk and dawn golden hours, these stinging clouds of flying vampires bite at every hour that God sends:
"Climate change and the rapid evolution of the insect have helped drive up malaria deaths and brought dengue and other mosquito-borne viruses to places that never had to worry about them."