Tag: mosquitos

Google to Release 64 Million Bacteria-Infected Mosquitoes Across California and Florida Over the Next Two Years

Google is seeking federal approval to release up to 64 million specially treated mosquitoes across California and Florida over the next two years, according to an Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announcement published earlier this month in The Federal Register, the official journal of the U.S. government.

The tech giant is “requesting an experimental use permit (EUP) for the Wolbachia pipientis wAlbB contained in live adult Culex quinquefasciatus male mosquitoes (DQB Strain),” according to the announcement.

A summary of the request reads:

“Google LLC is proposing to use up to 14.080 mg of the active ingredient Wolbachia pipientis wAlbB Contained in Live Adult Culex quinquefasciatus Male Mosquitoes (DQB Strain) for two years in California and Florida. In Florida, up to 16,000,000 DQB Male Mosquitoes are proposed to be released in year 1, and up to 16,000,000 released in year 2. In California, up to 16,000,000 are proposed to be released in year 1, and up to 16,000,000 released in year 2. Proposed testing will include the states of California and Florida to generate data to support a Section 3 product registration application under FIFRA.”

Keep reading

Florida Drops 800,000 Irradiated Mosquitoes from Drones Over Citizens 

A Florida government mosquito-control agency has confirmed that approximately 800,000 Aedes aegypti mosquitoes were raised in a laboratory, said to be sterilized with X-rays, and released from drones over part of Fort Myers, Florida, in what officials describe as a mosquito population-control experiment.

Aedes aegypti mosquitoes are known vectors of dengue, chikungunya, Zika, and yellow fever.

The mosquitoes are irradiated at 12 Gy per minute (12,000 mGy/min), while a human chest X-ray delivers only 0.1 mSv total—so the mosquito dose rate is 120,000 times higher than the dose a person receives in a chest X-ray.

The Florida operation was conducted at the historic Edison and Ford Winter Estates tourist site, which includes gardens, museums, and public walkways visited by civilians and families throughout the year.

Local reporting stated the release was part of an ongoing partnership between the mosquito-control district and the estates property.

The Lee County Mosquito Control District was created by the Florida Legislature in 1958 as an independent special district funded primarily through local property taxes.

That means local Florida residents are effectively funding the development and expansion of drone-based mosquito release operations over populated areas.

The mosquitoes were released using drone technology as part of the so-called Sterile Insect Technique (SIT) program.

The program’s stated goal is to suppress mosquito populations by flooding an area with sterilized male mosquitoes that mate with wild females, producing eggs that allegedly do not hatch.

Officials claim only male mosquitoes were released because male mosquitoes do not bite humans.

However, studies show these techniques still end up producing both female mosquitoes (which do bite, potentially spreading disease) and eggs that do end up hatching.

Keep reading

Chinese scientists have turned mosquitoes into flying vaccines — that can still bite humans

Researchers from the nation that likely unleashed COVID-19 unto the world have transformed mosquitoes into flying syringes.

Some researchers, including a group at the Bill Gates Foundation-backed Leiden University Medical Center in the Netherlands, have already attempted in recent years to fashion mosquitoes into flying vaccine delivery systems with human targets in mind.

Now, scientists at the state-controlled Chinese Academy of Sciences — an institution that has a strategic partnership with the People’s Liberation Army Academy of Military Sciences — have targeted bats, purportedly designing mosquitoes to instead deliver recombinant vesicular stomatitis virus-based rabies and Nipah vaccines to the flying mammals.

Like rabies, Nipah virus is a potentially deadly virus found in animals. Whereas rabies has nearly a 100% fatality rate in humans once symptoms manifest, the estimated case fatality rate for Nipah virus ranges from 40% to 75%.

Keep reading

Hemp Shows Strong Antiviral Activity Against Japanese Encephalitis Virus

The research, published by Arch Virol and conducted by scientists from Chung-Ang University, The Catholic University of Korea, Kyungpook National University and Gyeongkuk National University, analyzed whether extracts from hemp roots and stems could limit viral activity in cell models.

The team prepared ethanol extracts and organic solvent fractions from hemp material, first identifying non-toxic concentration ranges through standard cytotoxicity assays. Several of these fractions showed strong virucidal effects, but the hexane and chloroform fractions stood out for producing the most pronounced suppression of viral activity.

When these highly active fractions were applied after cells had already been infected, researchers observed a sharp reduction in viral replication. Both JEV mRNA and the viral E protein dropped substantially, indicating that the post-treatment approach directly interfered with the virus’s ability to grow. By contrast, applying the fractions before viral exposure—or at the same time as exposure—did not offer meaningful protection, suggesting the compounds work most effectively once infection is underway.

Further chemical analysis identified several known hemp-derived molecules within the active fractions, and one compound in particular, stigmasterol, emerged as a key antiviral candidate. In follow-up tests, stigmasterol demonstrated both virucidal action and direct antiviral activity. It disrupted viral entry during infection and suppressed viral growth afterward, again reducing JEV mRNA and E protein expression to significant levels.

Keep reading

The Weaponization of Gene-Edited Mosquitoes

There are several dimensions to the mosquito crisis. The release of gene-edited male mosquitoes, coupled with the development of a dengue and malaria vaccine

But that is but the tip of the iceberg.

According to F. William Engdahl in 2018, the weaponization of insects is on the drawing board of the Pentagon:

There is strong evidence that the Pentagon, through its research and development agency, DARPA, is developing genetically modified insects that would be capable of destroying agriculture crops of a potential enemy.

The claim has been denied by DARPA, but leading biologists have sounded the alarm on what is taking place using new “gene-editing” CRISPR technology to in effect weaponize insects.

It’s like a 21st Century update of the Biblical plague of locusts, only potentially far worse.

Under the DARPA project, Genetic Alteration Agents or viruses will be introduced into the insect population to directly influence the genetic makeup of crops.

DARPA plans to use leaf hoppers, white flies, and aphids to introduce select viruses into crops. Among other dubious claims they say it will help farmers combat ‘climate change’.

What no one can answer, especially as neither the Pentagon nor the US FDA are asking, is how will the genetically engineered viruses in the insects interact with other microorganisms in the environment?

If crops are constantly being inundated by genetically modified viruses, how could this could alter the genetics and immune systems of humans who depend on the crops?

See F. William Engdahl, Why Is the Pentagon “Weaponizing Insects”? October 30, 2018

This posting includes excerpts from Jordan Shachtel, Amie Wek and Jamie White followed by the article of F. William Engdahl.

The World Mosquito Program plans to release five billion mosquitoes into Brazil.

“And the hope is they will help save lives. [Once] you see the reductions in disease transmission, it doesn’t seem like a horror movie any more,” Scott O’Neill, director of the World Mosquito Program” (CBC, April 2023)

Implemented concurrently with the influx of 5 billion friendly mosquitoes, Brazil approved in March 2023 a vaccine against dengue.

Keep reading

Cannabis extract proves to be highly effective at killing the most dangerous animals in the world

Every year, mosquito-borne diseases cut short more than a million lives across the globe, outpacing every other animal threat to humanity. The rising toll has public-health teams scrambling for fresh combat tools, especially as traditional chemical sprays lose their edge.

That loss stems from two hard truths. First, the very pyrethroid insecticides that once worked wonders now linger in soil and water, nudging delicate ecosystems off balance.

Second, mosquitoes adapt fast. Larvae soaking in tainted puddles and adults drifting through treated neighborhoods increasingly shrug off doses that once killed them.

Controlling the pests at their waterborne stage is vital, yet options that stay potent without harming everything else remain limited.

Cannabis, CBD, and mosquitoes

Recent research published in the journal Insects points to a solution hiding in plain sight: the hemp plant, Cannabis sativa.

After air-drying and grinding ordinary hemp leaves, scientists at The Ohio State University led by Erick Martinez Rodriguez extracted cannabidiol (CBD) and added the concentrate to cups of water teeming with yellow fever mosquito larvae.

Within 48 hours, both a strain that laughs at common insecticides and a non-resistant strain were wiped out.

“Mosquitoes are one of the deadliest animals in the world, mainly because as adults they serve as vectors of disease,” Rodriguez explained.

From resistance to vulnerability

Two important findings jumped out. The first was total mortality: every mosquito larva exposed to sufficient CBD died by the two-day mark, regardless of its genetic armor.

The second was efficiency. While industrial chemicals often push resistance higher with every generation, CBD’s effect cut straight through those defenses. Doses varied, but even modest concentrations proved lethal to all mosquito larvae.

“If you compare the amount of hemp extract needed to kill 50 % of the population to other synthetic conventional insecticides, it is on the high side, but when you compare it side by side to other natural extracts we have tested in our lab, only a relatively low amount is required to produce high mortality values in larvae,” said Martinez Rodriguez.

Keep reading

Researchers Funded by Bill Gates Turn Mosquitoes into ‘Flying Syringes’ to Deliver Vaccines

Researchers at Leiden University Medical Center, backed by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, have developed a new method of delivering malaria vaccines using genetically modified mosquitoes as “flying vaccinators.”

The Blaze reports that in a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine, scientists have demonstrated the effectiveness of using mosquitoes as “flying syringes” to vaccinate humans against malaria. The research, conducted at the Leiden University Medical Center (LUMC) in the Netherlands with funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, represents a new and potentially worrying advancement in vaccine technology.

The study involved genetically modifying malaria parasites to stop developing after a certain period of time in the human body. The modified parasites, named GA1 and GA2, were designed to prime the immune system without causing a full-blown malaria infection. Researchers then infected mosquitoes with these engineered parasites and allowed them to bite human test subjects in a controlled setting.

Keep reading

EPA Authorizes Release of 2 Billion More GMO Mosquitoes as Reports of Malaria Surface in States That Already Released Them

GE mosquitoes created by biotechnology company Oxitec have been released in the U.S., even though the long-term effects could be disastrous.

Oxitec is using Aedes aegypti (A. aegypti) mosquitoes for this real-world experiment, the species known to carry yellow fever, dengue fever, chikungunya, Zika, West Nile and Mayaro, a dengue-like disease.

Oxitec genetically engineered the males to carry a “genetic kill switch,” such that when they mate with wild female mosquitoes, their offspring inherits the lethal gene and cannot survive or reproduce in the wild.

In the U.S., Oxitec is marketing the insects as Oxitec Friendly mosquitoes, trying to put a non-threatening name on a reckless project that could quickly backfire.

It may even be too late, as the GE mosquitoes have already been released in multiple locations.

Keep reading

THIS WILL NOT END WELL: Communist Chinese Scientists Explore Using MOSQUITOS to Distribute VACCINES, Could Create Dangerous MUTANT Insects Instead

Designing a killer virus evidently was just a little test run for the Chicoms. Now they might unleash mankind’s most notorious insect to supposedly “vaccinate” wildlife and reduce viral infections.

Hard to imagine any unintended consequences will occur. It’s not like mosquitos spread nasty infections like Yellow Fever, Malaria, West Nile, and Dengue Fever to humans.

The South China Morning Post reported Wednesday that Chinese scientists claim they found a way to turn the disease-carrying nuisance into an indispensable ally of all humanity. Of course, this required them to create a few genetically modified insects.

Here are their findings. No question they applied this trial with the same rigor and caution as their other gain of function research projects:

“The researchers found that bites in wildlife from genetically modified mosquitoes triggered a strong, long-lasting immune response. Once immunized, the animals resisted infections, thus helping to prevent the early spread of many viruses, including the once widespread Zika virus (ZIKV).”

“In their study, the researchers used CYV as a vaccine vector to construct a chimeric vaccine, which contains proteins from a different virus. They took several proteins from CYV and inserted them into ZIKV cells to create the CYV-ZIKV virus, which was not infectious (in animals, human impact unknown). CYV-ZIKV could replicate efficiently in mosquitoes and be secreted in saliva, they said.”

But don’t worry about this virus reaching mosquitos in the wild. Chinese scientists assure us they took care of the problem. You can trust the Chicoms, right?

Keep reading

‘Super’ mosquitoes have now mutated to withstand insecticides, scientists say

One of the most vilified pest species on the planet continues to outsmart the ways in which humans attempt to get rid of them.

“Super” mosquitoes have evolved to withstand insecticides, according to new research — and the most “sobering” finding is the high rate in which a species known for carrying disease has developed mutations.

Researchers at the National Institute of Infectious Diseases in Japan studied mosquitoes in dengue-endemic areas in Vietnam and Cambodia and found that they harbor mutations that endow them with strong resistance to common insecticides, according to a study published in Science Advances on Wednesday.

One of the most concerning mutations appeared in about 78% in collected specimens of Aedes aegypti — one of the most infamous species of mosquito and a major vector of dengue, yellow fever and Zika virus, according to the study.

Keep reading