 Adam Navas. Adam Navas. And today, we are going to have a real conversation between two native English speakers. And we are going to talk about this week's program, The Amazing and Terrible Mosquito. So, Adam, maybe you feel like most people around the world, how do you feel about mosquitoes? I think that mosquitoes must have some place, some role to play in the ecosystem as food, as some kind of biological balance. But I do not like them. Yeah, so this program, you learn all about mosquitoes from when they are born all the way through how they live, how far they can travel. If you haven't checked out this program, you can visit the link in the show notes below or above at the link. But I think you probably learned a lot about mosquitoes in this program, right, Adam? Yeah, I mean, some of the things I knew, but I did learn more than I wanted to, more than I ever needed to about mosquitoes. Although, thinking about your ecosystem question, I'm not really sure it answers that sort of question, like, what is the purpose of mosquitoes? Just to spread disease? Yeah, I assume they were food for birds and bats. Yeah, that's probably a good guess. So we can talk about this a little later, but of course, okay, so we know that mosquitoes, some mosquitoes spread disease, right? The program talks about that, how they can spread yellow fever, malaria, other diseases, viruses. And we should say, for people who don't know the word mosquito, they are, I don't know if they bite or suck blood from animals and humans. They do, they do, both of them. Okay, so mosquitoes do bother animals and humans and they can transmit viruses because they're dealing with so much blood. They actually insert a part of their mouth under your skin. Yeah, I love that, you really love that. And then what they do is they inject a sort of poison or like a substance into your skin to make your blood flow faster into the mosquito, which when they leave, that little toxin is what leaves the bump and the itchy red bump on you when the mosquito leaves. So, and that affects animals and humans. And so because they're dealing with all that blood, they spread diseases that way. Right, so normally the mosquito, it's itchy for a little while, maybe a day or two, you can put some cream on it, no big deal, except when they transmit diseases because of what you're talking about, correct? Right, yeah, and so there are ways that people have tried to get rid of mosquitoes. We give some tips on how you can avoid mosquitoes at the end of the program, which I thought were good. But there are also, I think it's in me, I'm not actually sure what program it's in. Maybe I'll find it and I'll link it below. But where we talk about to eradicate diseases, so for example, to get rid of malaria, why couldn't you just get rid of all mosquitoes, right? So there are some like scientists and researchers who study how you can maybe make all mosquitoes sterile, so they're not able to have more babies or that you just, I don't know, you have some poison that you put in that only affects mosquitoes, but how does that affect the ecosystem? I know, it's fascinating stuff with this genetic modification, but it is a question. When you start, if you could, let's say they were successful and you eliminated all mosquitoes, could you really anticipate every effect that would come from that? And I don't think you could. Yeah, that's the question, right? And once you've gotten rid of all the mosquitoes, what if it was the wrong move and then you've taken away a part of this ecosystem, then how do you add it back in? We have that problem with a lot of things. So there is an English word for plants that we call weed. Now, this is not marijuana, but this is what we call an invasive species, something we don't want in our lawns or gardens or anywhere near us. But the word weed is not a scientific term, it just means a plant that's growing, right? And if we get rid of it, if we use chemicals or change that, because we don't like it, because as humans we don't like it, there could be consequences that we can't anticipate. And so where does it end? We start with mosquitoes, maybe there's a plant we don't like, maybe we go to a bird or a fish, which also can be invasive. There's layers and layers of questions here. Yeah, there really are. And where do you stop? Okay, so I did wanna talk about some of these facts about mosquitoes in this program because there were some very interesting facts. Okay, hit me. For example, okay, hit you up. Hit me, shoot, let's go. For example, did you know that there are over 3,000 different kinds of mosquitoes? I did not, until this program. Yeah, that is incredible to me. Again, they must be so part of the ecosystem. Maybe somebody knows who's watching right now, if you know or have an idea about how mosquitoes are part of the ecosystem, maybe where you live or just in general. Yeah. Pop a comment below. And maybe this is in the program. Are mosquitoes everywhere? I mean, I know that mosquitoes are not in the Arctic, right? Cold weather kills mosquitoes, makes them go dormant. They live mostly in warmer climates and they can be their year round. But of course, we live in Michigan, which is not a warm climate, but does get warm. So in the winter, in the winter months, we are very cold, we'll get below freezing, we'll have plenty of snow. No bugs or insects. No bugs, yeah. All the bugs kind of die out or go inside for the winter. But then in the summer, they all come back. Including mosquitoes. So in the spring, we will start seeing more and more mosquitoes. But then again, in the winter, they'll all die out. So but yeah, they are a much bigger problem in a consistently warmer climate and not in colder climates. But not a desert because they do require some water to grow, right? Yeah, actually. So some mosquitoes, this is another thing I learned, some mosquitoes lay their eggs in small pools of water, some in larger pools of water, but they all need water. So one of the most important ways that people can avoid mosquitoes near their homes or places that they can control is to get rid of any standing water. Standing water is an interesting English phrase. Yes, so standing water is water that is not moving. So you could say still water. So for example, if it's just rained and there is something that has collected that rainwater, you want to make sure and pour that water out so that mosquitoes can't breed in there. Because they do need standing water to breed. And so yeah, that's a good way to get rid of or avoid mosquitoes. In the first place, not even getting born. Not even getting born. Yeah, exactly. And the other thing, OK, so another thing that I learned from this program that mosquitoes can sense a host, so a person or an animal that they want to suck blood from, from up to 35 meters away. 35 meters. Yeah, 35 meters. But do they smell us? Do they smell us? OK, so this is a very interesting point, Adam. Because, OK, I will tell you something about myself. I actually do not usually get mosquito bites. Or if they bite me, they don't itch. So I and a friend can be sitting outside near the end of the day. And my friend might get mosquito bites all over. And I will maybe get one or usually not any. Wow. I know. It's a pretty great superpower. You know why? Well, OK, so scientists have theories, but they don't really know. Excuse me. I'd like to imagine that scientists have studied you personally. And they have theories. That's definitely what I'm talking about. Yeah, they have plenty of theories about me. No. Oh, excuse me. No, so what they think is that, well, they know that people have smells and chemicals all over their bodies. So pheromones and hormones. Well, are pheromones hormones? Or just like food smells? If you eat a bunch of onions, you might smell a little oniony. Right, or garlic. So there's all of these smells all over your body. And I think, I don't know if this is in the program, but I think there's something like 1,000 different smells or compounds that are on your skin at any time. So every person smells very different. And they have a different combination. And they think that these, and they're breathing out smells and carbon dioxide. And they think that mosquitoes are attracted to some of these smells and not others. Here was a very interesting one. People with very stinky feet had more mosquito bites. Oh, so you must not have very stinky feet. Well, if you are watching this and you have stinky feet, let us know. Do you get lots of mosquito bites? And it's something, people who smelled like a very, you know how cheese can be very, very smelly? Yes. People who smelled like or ate this very, very smelly cheese had more mosquito bites. Interesting. So you must. But of course, there's the old wives tail. So something that an old wives tail is like something that just people pass down. It might not be scientifically proven in a laboratory, but. Exactly. So this old wives tail says that if you eat garlic, then you smell and taste like garlic to a mosquito, and then a mosquito will avoid you. And that is actually research found not true. OK. I'll stop eating garlic then. Yeah, yeah, you can. Well, you know, garlic is good. Garlic is delicious. But yeah, so there are actually a lot of interesting things about mosquitoes. Yeah. So if you're watching this video and you haven't gone yet because you're just interested in what we have to say about mosquitoes, go watch and listen to this program from the show notes. And while you're there. Well, just one second, there's a classic version and an advanced version. So you have both options. Yeah. And while you're there, make sure to like this program and subscribe to it. If you're a first time, if you just came to this and are like, who are these people talking to me? We have vast amounts of playlists, both on our website and on our YouTube channel. We try to respond to comments and questions. We apologize if we can't get to them. There's just welcome to this community. And we are excited that you're here. And you can find us on social media. Facebook, Twitter. Yeah. YouTube. YouTube, obviously. Yeah, make sure that you subscribe and hit the little bell. Yep, get your notifications. And yeah, I think we've covered everything. And we look forward to whatever you have to say about mosquitoes. Tell us your stories. Tell us. If there's anyone, I'd be very curious. I'll end on this note saying, if anyone out there loves mosquitoes, put it in the comments, because I have not found someone who really loves mosquitoes. I don't think you're going to get anybody on that one. Probably not. But I think you're probably going to get people who hate mosquitoes. The big world. Yeah, it is a big world. All right, thanks for watching. Make sure to subscribe. We'll see you later. All right, bye.