War and Mosquitos
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- Опубликовано: 26 сен 2024
- Mosquitos spread malaria, yellow fever, dengue fever, West Nile virus, zika virus and numerous other deadly and debilitating diseases. As there are an estimated over 100 trillion mosquitoes on the planet at any given moment, it should not come as a surprise the mosquitos have had a significant impact on war. The History Guy remembers a tiny insect and the outsized impact it had on history.
This is original content based on research by The History Guy. Images in the Public Domain are carefully selected and provide illustration. As very few images of the actual event are available in the Public Domain, images of similar objects and events are used for illustration.
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Script by THG
#insect #thehistoryguy #mosquito
One hundred trillion mosquitoes on Earth, and I swear at least half of them were in my tent this weekend.
As a entomologist who spent more than a decade researching mosquitoes I want to commend you on how well you did on this one. Great work. One thing most people do not realize, I can understand why of course, is that many mosquito species are beautiful when viewed via a magnifier. Many of the Aedes species aegypti/albopictus especially are almost florescent when you view them. I used to have to ID 1000's of mosquitoes at once and the Aedes species would stick out among the others with that shimmer.
So out of curiosity, do they become more or less luminescent with or without the presence of blood? Or does it matter?
Where at Craig B?
I do the same thing....
In Maryland, Dept. Of Agriculture, Mosquito Control Division.
My favorite is Toxorhynchitis, metallic purple when an adult....as a larva, they predate on other mosquito larva.
Super interesting episode and comment!
I'm happy to see your comment. So many RUclips "fact" channels appear to use Wikipedia as their only source material. They seem to be doing a great job until they present a subject I understand and I see inaccuracies and indications that they really don't understand the topic. The History Guy seems to really have an understanding of the topics he covers and presents then very well.
@@northgeorgiaclearing6982 For sure, like the entomologist lads above, he really seems to have been bitten by Malaria Mosquitoes ;-p
Malaria possibly saved my grandfather's life in the South Pacific. He was pulled from the trenches violently ill. He survived and didn't face heavy combat again.
I never met a Guadalcanal veteran of the 1st Marine Division who did not get malaria (malarial fevers reoccur for years after soldiers were "cured"). The entire first marine division was out of action for a year after its relief on Guadalcanal. Almost none of its combat veterans from that campaign served in the battles for Cape Gloucester or Peleliu.
@Brass Cooling But *very* ironically............
Before the discovery of antibiotics, *deliberately* infecting people with early stage syphilis with malaria was arguably the most effective cure on the planet.
It worked because the syphilis spirochete was usually killed by the prolonged high fever Malaria usually causes.
My uncle was a marine in the Pacific, and he had it.
@@TheBetterManInBlack Err ..... WHICH did he have?
(We know what those marines are lke ;-p )
And after Guadalcanal, the 1st Marine Division had RnR in Melbourne, Australia, partly to get them out of the malaria zone.
@@maddyg3208 After their Australian R&R almost every 1st Marine was sent back to US and never served in combat again. Of the two I know 1 was discharged from Marines due to chronic malarial infection an lost his career as an opera singer due to lung damage. The other went to engineering school for rest of war as a Marine college student (also with chronic malari for rest of 80 year life). 1st Mar div landed on Guadalcanal, siezed and held Henderson field. US army took offensive finished the battle for which they were given almost no credit. Army units in South Pacific saw combat through entire rest of war (no relief stateside), just like their European Theater counterparts.
The biggest mosquitos I've ever witnessed were in Alaska at about two inches across, wing tip to wing tip. The swarms were formidable and were actually named as the responsible party in the deaths of livestock, due to blood loss.
My grandfather described them as "being able to rape a turkey flat-footed".
Lilo & Stitch make a great commentary on how we are the food source of the dominant species of Earth - The Mosquito.
🌈the more you know🌈
LOL
By sheer biomass the dominant species are *Bacteria*
Mosquitoes? Pha! Those guys are just taxi cabs for the bacteria.
""Pleakley:
"Look! A mosquito has chosen me as her perch. She's so beautiful. There's another one, and another. It's a whole flock. They like me. They're nuzzling my flesh with their noses. Now they're... they're... Aaaaaaaah!""
I used Google because I couldn't remember his name. Best line in the movie imo. I loved Lilo and Stitch ^-^
@@KorbinX that is a really good movie.
The History Guy deserves to be remembered.
That was another remarkable addition. Good Job.
Always excited to see a notification from THG!
❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤
My father fought for the USA in the pacific during WWII. He suffered from malaria for many years after the war.
The war on mosquitos gave us DDT. If we didn't have and use DDT, there would be no "Jersey Shore" as mosquito borne disease kept the area uninhabitable until about the mid 1950's. I'm not certain who came out ahead on that one.
To be fair was DDT used for far more then just mosquitoes, it have been used in moth balls and even to kill pests in crop fields (yeah, that was really not a good idea). Today, it is only used against mosquitoes and only in certain cases.
It was discovered by accident (then again, so was penicillin) and I think people would have used it even if there were no mosquitoes, it was cheap and "safe" so people used it on all kinds of bugs.
And anyways, there are other ways to get rid of mosquitoes. Dyke out marshlands and plant carp fish in waterways is slower and more expensive but it does the job as well.
The problem is when the entire place is a swamp like Florida or when the place is huge and poor like large parts of Africa and mezo America.
Anyways, Jersey shores is better then Malaria, you can only turn off one of those 2 things. ;)
My father was stationed in Panama during WWII. I heard him say many times that DDT won WWII.
I took mefloquine during my three deployments to OEF/OIF, and was diagnosed with PTSD after the third. I didn't deploy again in my military career, but I now suffer from several undiagnosed neurological issues, like tremors and frequent vision changes. Fun times. But at least I didn't catch malaria, right?
I've had many cases of malaria and once I treated it with mefloquine. DO NOT TAKE MEFLOQUINE! It is far worse than malaria.
@@maryinsentani6801 I wish I had a choice 😵💫 Trust me when I say I know the importance of force readiness, but service members sacrifice much of themselves to the cause: mind, body, and soul.
Thank you for your service.
@@ddthompson42 I am sorry you didn't have a choice. The depression was at times almost overwhelming. I've been fortunate that I knew it was mefloquine caused and not reality caused. THANK YOU for your service. For clarification: I am not, nor ever have been a member of the armed forces. My time in Indonesia has been for other reasons.
I used to have some of the craziest dreams on Mefloquine.
My Dad contacted malaria in Sicily during WW2. He was with General Patton's army. It became bad enough that he was sent home to the US after he reached Rome. Thankfully, the symptoms didn't last too long, but he was never allowed to donate blood.
Content suggestion: A video on how malaria was effectively wiped out in the continental United States, and why similar strategies have not worked in other locales.
Draining swamps is not that cheap, especially if the swamps are economically productive. Look up the "swamp Iraqis" that Saddam ruined by draining their swamps.
American hunter was up before the local magistrate in a small town of northern Ontario. It seems he shot down a Cessna. When asked why he shot it, he explained he thought it was a mosquito. Case dismissed.
So.....you dislike cessnas? Ok...
My dad came home from WWII with yellow fever from the South Pacific, my mom had malaria as a child in southern Illinois and my son had transient numbness of the hand from a mosquito bite in Korea. Wow, thanks for the info!!
My grandfather joined the Australian army in 1942. Served in the infantry in North Africa, New Guinea and Borneo unscathed. After the fighting on Labuan Island ended in 1945 he caught malaria and spent a full year in hospital, followed by many reoccurrences and side effects throughout his life which contributed towards his death at age 60. It’s an untold stat of WWII.
May he Rest in Peace.
Lest We Forget.
Mark from Melbourne Australia
Thank you for another great and informative video. I had dengue fever 23 years ago while living in Honduras. I know why it's often called break bone fever. It was a horrible experience 🐜
My Dad, who was stationed on Tinian Island in 1945, said that he never saw an insect on the island because they had sprayed DDT everywhere in order to eradicate the mosquito. As children, we used to gleefully follow the trucks fogging our town to get rid of mosquitos. I'm not sure what chemical they were spraying.
Did that myself. Dang, we must have been starved for excitement.
It would have been DDT…
it was outlawed for a reason
Me, too. I thought it smelled like corn cooking. Like you, I don't know what it was, but think it was DDT.
I was a mosquito control technician in Central Florida, and then in Texas. During my tenure, there have been a number of new techniques and chemicals also that are in our arsenal against this critter. To keep people safe we needed to know our quarry, and that we did, learning more every day. Thanks for bringing about a very interesting and important part of war fare that many didn't realize.
I was in the Keys in the early 90s and there were a couple of old DC-3 airplanes painted bright yellow with the words "MOSQUITO CONTROL" painted in big letters under the wings. They would fly low overhead every morning, spraying the swamps, and their engines would shake our house. I don't know how well they worked on mosquitos, but it was very cool to see a DC-3 still earning its living and being well taken care of.
Thanks for your contribution.
@@RCAvhstape There are some jobs for which the only good aircraft is a DC-3. For several decades, the best way to identify those jobs is to see if it's being done by a DC-3.
@@evensgrey What will they use when the DC-3s are to old to fly? Problem a bit like the DHC Caribou, slow flying sideways, but if you need to get in and out of a tight rough strip then there was nothing better. FNQ and PNG are two perfect examples.
Mark from Melbourne Australia.
@@markfryer9880 If they were smart Boeing (who owns Douglas now) would restart production.
If ONLY I had had YOU as my history teacher ... you are genuinely a master at this.
Smart boards of education will license youtube video presentations of history, to entertain as well as educate students. Sadly, most members of boards of education, are only interested in perpetuating their own positions, and restricting information to students, rather than support intellectual discourse.
Ahhh yes. War and mosquitos. The opposite of the classic, “War and Peace”
I had no idea about the possible side effects linked to the anti-malaria medication I took in Afghanistan. We had to start taking the medication months prior to deployment and then months after new returned home. The one effect that I know it did have was intense and vivid dreams. I had some of the best and most terrifying dreams during my deployment and I usually chalked it up to the medication and the stressful situation. Even then I know one soldier who came down with malaria symptoms but he recovered fairly quickly and it was never really determined what he actually had. Getting intensely sick for a few days and then being back on duty without a diagnosis or a clue as to what afflicted us was pretty common. I hope we find out more about the possible link between the pills and PTSD like symptoms.
I would very much like to know if there is a way to determine if the medication can be traced in a veteran, or if it has to be considered circumstantial. We took it as my reserve CSH sat on trucks ready to deploy in 1991.
Ivermectin works well for malaria and the military wouldn't use it. Why not?
How exactly much faith can a person have with the powers that be to get jabbed regarding this present situation when OBVIOUSLY their record for thinking things thru have a whole lot of improving to do.
@@fredericmaloof8597 Ivermectin kills mosquitoes. It does nothing to the parasite. So basically it stops transmission but doesn’t cure the disease. If you are in a generally untreated population it gives no protection at all.
2% of ivermectin users have significant side effects from the drug.
@@allangibson2408 Its lethal to the mosquitos. A few bites and gone. No female mosquitos to pass on the parasites.
Ivermectin has continually proved to be astonishingly safe for human use. Indeed, it is such a safe drug, with minimal side effects, that it can be administered by non-medical staff and even illiterate individuals in remote rural communities, provided that they have had some very basic, appropriate training. I have never heard of 2% serious side effects. What study? Where did you find that?
As a inhabitant of the Dutch island of Walcheren, I approve your pronunciation of my island 😁. Keep on the good work of telling history.
Growing in PR in the 80's Dengue was still a major concern
Not sure how effective the stuff that was sprayed to kill mosquitos was, it sure did reek and made everyone hid in the house
I still catch myself looking suspiciously at anything with stagnant water in it
And now an effective Dengue Fever vaccine exists… A Malaria vaccine has proved more challenging.
@@allangibson2408 Well, there IS one that I understand is pretty effective, but there's a HUGE problem with it. What they have to do is have a supply of otherwise disease-free mosquitoes, and irradiate them to the degree that they, and the parasites in them, will die shortly, then let them bite those to be protected. The parasites last long enough in the blood stream to raise an immune reaction, then die without having the time to produce an infection. The radiation used doesn't produce any secondary radiation, so there's no exposure to that, but if the equipment were to go wrong, in at least a couple of different ways, it would, as we say in the business, turn into a bad day. And irradiation machines are sometimes known to go wrong.
@@evensgrey Actually there are two. Dengvaxia is a recombinant DNA vaccine built on a yellow fever virus and DENvax which is built on a modified dengue fever virus. No radiation involved in either. Dengvaxia does produce problems in people who have never had a previous Dengue fever infection (dengue is worse the second time around). DENvax is supposed to fix that by giving immunity to all four strains at once.
On Saturday we had an evening party in the backyard to watch football, and I thought the weather had turned cool enough to have kept the mosquitoes away. I was wrong, and just reading the title of this video made my legs itch.
THG, the Sterile Insect Technique (SIT), used to irradicate the screw worm fly, is history worth remembering (and pondering).
Experiments/testing is being used to do the same to mosquitos.
One can only hope this insect can be wiped out.
Just imagine where civilization would be today if mosquitoes didn’t transmit dangerous pathogens.
In the Spanish-American War, most of the American Army deaths occurred in the United States among troops never deployed to a combat area. These deaths were due to infectious disease (including mosquito-borne) or bad food.
As a (retired) Navy Preventive Medicine Technician, I thank you for posting this informative and eye-opening video. It has always amazed me that the casual historian might study battle tactics and weapons technology and personalities and politics, but will be blissfully ignorant of the true impact of disease on the outcome of battles and wars. Until recently infectious disease has (with extremely rare exception) caused more casualties among the combatants than the battles themselves - the numbers generally ranging from 3:1 to 10:1.
It also amazed me when, around 1995, a Navy epidemiologist told me there was insufficient empirical evidence to support the claim that Gulf War Syndrome existed -- but that's another story for another time.
When I was working for the Red Cross and in Africa 🌍 I saw 👀 a Mosquito 🦟 the size of a pack of Marlboros it was feeding on a Bos bovine and attacked a coworker. Eventually she was bitten at least 30 x I was bitten 3x ! A lot of people working with me had at least 20 bites each.
Wow, who would have thunk it? I had no idea the historical impact of the little blighters.
Great post. I knew mosquitoes are often a problem and I know about malaria but the total effect attributed to this critter is astounding. Thank you again for a great post.
I've had the most vivid and frightening nightmares since I was given mefloquine in 1990. I gradually went from normal occasional dreams and very rare bad dreams to nothing but the most sickening, wildly freakish, hideous, terrifying and distressing nightmares one can imagine.
Anyone seeking treatment for malaria should avoid mefloquine if at all possible. There are safer alternative medications available.
Anybody else find themselves itching right now?
Yep, and it burns when IP
Very interesting. It makes me think about the history of window screens which I believe helped to eliminate malaria in Canada.
Thoroughly enjoy your channel. 66 years old and still learning. Your channel has to be one of the most educational on RUclips. And this video on mosquitos/malaria is one of my favorites. I had no idea of the effect mosquitos had on history.
I think it's wrong to send mosquitoes to war...it's not their fight
You'll have to convince the mosquitos of that...
@@TheHistoryGuyChannel If mosquitoes drove cars their bumper stickers would say "Got Blood?"
What’s really interesting is that Malaria was a pretty common illness in countries, not associated with tropical deceases. The last cases of malaria, local in Sweden, were recorded in the 1930’s.
Guess I'll keep having my gin & tonics! I still get a kick out of shining a blacklight through a bottle of tonic water because quinine fluoresces.
Don't drink too much of that tonic, though. The quinine causes hearing damage.
As an artilleryman in the field I was often faced 2 options at night:
Sleep on top of the ammo carrier and get devoured by mosquitos, or
Sleep in the ammo carrier and cook.
We have dim skeeters all over my state, never heard of any contracting Malaria from them.
PBS's 'American Experience' did an excellent program on Yellow Fever, and the discovery that mosquitos were the vector.
It was only about 5 months ago that trials of generically modified mosquitoes were conducted by introducing them into Florida. The modified males only produce more males after breeding, so the biting females will be reduced in numbers.
Interesting - Males only
@Mike Smith Well, I would recommend breathing. It's really good for you.
@@paulkolodner2445 And make it 20% O2, at least. The rest should be something inert like N2.
@Mike Smith They're also attracted to lactic acid. The locate your body by following the CO2 and find your skin from the lactic acid it emits. I'm kinda like that with mosquitoes, too. If there's someone else around, I'm pretty safe.
@@jayfrank1913 Good thinking.
Mosquitoes are the real serial killers.
Actually the new Ford Class of US aircraft carrier was designed specifically to adhere to the size limit of the Panama Canal. Just like the Enterprise Class it is replacing. It must be a sight to behold.
The class being replaced is the Nimitz class. USS Enterprise was a one-off, built when nuclear power for surface ships hadn't been entirely worked out yet.
Like a fat girl trying to squeeze into a business-class airline seat.
My father served in the Pacific during world war ii, and had come down with malaria at some point.
I had Dengue fever when I lived in Puerto Rico. It was terrible. I felt like every bone in my body was breaking (that's why it's called "Break Bone Fever"). Dengue would certainly have disabled an army I assure you.
Another great episode! I'd never heard of the effects of mefloquine or the effects it was having
I was born today also, but in 1973.
Happy Birthday!
When I was with the ABSDF in Burma we used to half joke that the Tatmadaw was just an annoyance and that our real enemy was malaria. It very nearly killed me for sure. Alaungpaya, the great and revered Burman conquerer of Burma did it by making use of a herbal anti-malaria medicine.
David McCullough wrote a book about the construction of the Panama Canal and the battles against the mosquitos. The Path Between The Seas.
A most EXCELLENT book. The travel agent who arranged our cruise through the Panama canal sent each of us a copy well before the trip.
@@bea9077w Going through the canal was a kick wasn't it. One of more interesting days I've ever spent.
Fascinating book. I finished it in 3 days.
@@stevedietrich8936 One of the top engineering marvels of our world! Now with bigger locks!
I can tell you from experience that mefloquine will give you some crazy dreams. A lot of my guys complained of this issue.
oh hell no, we need to lock up every mosquito, put them in 1" x 1" cells, and throw away the keys.
Thank god they discovered quinine before utube!
My parents place must be Top Gun for mosquitoes. Those little jerks will get you with a 15mph wind. We just have West Nile to be concerned about though.
My father was wounded twice by hand grenades while serving in Korea. But malaria brought him home quite ill for years he suffered until recovery.
Malaria affected the Japanese forces during the Pacific Campaigns that the modern nation of Japan has provided a malaria research facility in Honiara, Solomon Islands.
Knew that from High School Biology. If memory is serving well enough there's only about 10 mosquito species or less that carry around the various illnesses.
My grandfather contracted malaria twice in WWII.
Wow! I'm in under 15 comments and 500 views.
"I must be in the front row...!"
In the late 50s and early 60s I was a young boy living in Florida. I remember public service films broadcast on television and radio about urging the residents to inspect their property for any standing water and eliminate it. Fill potholes, turn buckets upside-down, any automobile tires in yards drained and hauled off, inspect gutters for blockage holding water etc. At night the mosquitoe fogging trucks would provide a smoke screen that all the kids would run through.
I grew up on the peninsula of Ormond Bch, FL in the 70's & 80's. Though I do recall occasional mosquito foggers cruising our neighborhood near dusk, I guess myself & any kids I knew had the common sense to know running thru a pesticide fog breathing it wasn't the wisest choice. Scary to think what long term effects came of the kids who did that...
@@katmanluke7187 Our parents let us because public officials said the fog was safe and it contained DDT. The running in the fog wasn't something we did every night as the trucks came between 8:30 pm till morning about 5 am. So it wasn't a nightly thing. Usually when we had a barbecue on a weekend or Holliday. If you look around the internet there can be found commercials made in the 50s. You will see people sitting at a pick nick table eating their lunch while eating a meal, and the food, people are covered with DDT powdery fog. DDT was used to treat headlice after World War 2.
@@jameslockard6956 crazy. I guess I'd just never had inclination to breathe something meant to kill mosquitoes I'd not give a damn what was claimed about how safe. We now know the lies most chemical companies hide under that's for sure!
@@katmanluke7187 If you look up 50s commercials for DDT on You Tube you can see swimming pools full of kids swimming and government workers spraying DDT on them while they are swimming, eating and playing. It wasn't until 1968 that any Hazzard Was Reported! American eagles were declining due to defective egg laying. The DDT made the eggshells too thin and would shatter during egg laying or nesting. The Government didn't notice any health risk until 1968. By that point it had been used to kill insects from human lice, outdoor pest control, to kitchen and indoor pest control, for over 25 years. Our government said it was safe up until that point. Yet several years, I think 1972 was the last year when DDT was outlawed. Environmental educational and chemical education of the public changed in the 70s. When microwave ovens became available we were told they were safe. What if that were to turn out to not be true. What if your cell phone microwave radiation could cause health risks. Only until something that causes a interest to the public would anything be done about it. We now know light emitted from some computer and phone screens cause eye damage. Still I know people who were informed about this danger continued to use their devices until they were replaced. DDT was so commonly used like your microwave , phone, and other electronics. If you were to measure the radiation as I have mine , with a Geiger counter you would be surprised. Every time you drink out of a plastic container you are ingesting plastic microparticales the Government and industry say its safe. But is it really?🙁
@@katmanluke7187 , " Hey there farmer, put away that DDT now /give me spots on the apples, and leave me the birds and the bees, please......" Joni Mitchell
Mefloquine nightmares were about the most exciting thing that happened during my first deployment. Good times. Good, horrible times.
I find it both humorous and interesting that when the summer Olympics were held in Rio, they combated the mosquito and disease outbreak that had people worried by releasing dozens of small minnows in every lake, pond, pool and puddle. It was reported that there were almost no mosquitoes seen during the Olympics.
Interesting indeed. We live in a heavily forested area in the midwest. Mosquitos are a constant irritant and fighting of them is a full time job. This year things changed a bit. In the spring I purchased dragon fly eggs as dragon flys voraciously eat mosquitos. Things were much improved this spring and summer.
Killings, small minnows found in the brackish waters of New England, are voracious eaters of mosquito larvae.
@@captainamerica6525
Dragonflies, ehh?
I am quite fond of them as we have many varieties here in the SW.
So, they are the "real" mosquito hawks!
Good to know 😊
This was a fascinating episode. I love the history guy. I live in a historically rich place. Maybe you've heard about it? Gloucester Virgina, I'm currently sitting 5.5 miles from Walter Reed's birthplace and 13 miles from Yorktown
A fascinating episode on malaria and other mosquito-borne illnesses. Sad to hear that mefloquine has such nasty side effects. thanks for the great story.
''Mosquito Empires'' by John McNeill is a great read (about the Spanish Empire, revolutions in the Americas, and the Panama Canal)
Thanks for the recommendation. I'll have to check it out.
"The Yellow Plague" is primarily about the historic yellow fever epidemic in 1800's Memphis, but has a lot of info on the mosquitoes themselves and the spread of the disease from Africa to the Caribbean and finally to America , primarily because of the slave trade.
My grandfarther George Victor McIntosh from Nova Scotia was one of the last to get Malaria at the Panama Canel he told me that they dumped all the oil and fuel in the water to kill the Mosquito larva he left the merchant Marienes and met my Grandmother in Nashua NH on his Harley Davidson motorcycle there was only 5 miles to the ocean he bought me a toy Michigan loader and told me the story himself !!!
In 1864, during the American Civil War, the Union Navy's East Gulf Blockade Squadron had to temporarily relocate from Key West due to a yellow fever outbreak. The USS James S. Chambers suffered a massive outbreak of yellow fever while on blockade duty off the Florida East Coast. Among the first stricken was the ship's physician. He seemingly recovered enough a few days later to help care for the other sick, but later in a fit of delirium (no doubt exacerbated by exhaustion) he jumped overboard to his death. Eventually about 2/3 of the crew got sick at some point and the vessel was sent north for the crew to recover.
Wow! I never knew they had that much effect on wars and thus human history.
Mark Twain tells of a man from Arkansas discussing mosquitos: "but when you come to look at the effects produced, in the way of discouragement of immigration, and diminished values of property, it was quite the opposite of a small thing, or thing in any wise to be coughed down or sneered at. These mosquitoes had been persistently represented as being formidable and lawless; whereas 'the truth is, they are feeble, insignificant in size, diffident to a fault, sensitive'-and so on, and so on; you would have supposed he was talking about his family. But if he was soft on the Arkansas mosquitoes, he was hard enough on the mosquitoes of Lake Providence to make up for it-'those Lake Providence colossi,' as he finely called them. He said that two of them could whip a dog, and that four of them could hold a man down; and except help come, they would kill him-'butcher him,' as he expressed it. Referred in a sort of casual way-and yet significant way-to 'the fact that the life policy in its simplest form is unknown in Lake Providence-they take out a mosquito policy besides.' He told many remarkable things about those lawless insects. Among others, said he had seen them try to vote. Noticing that this statement seemed to be a good deal of a strain on us, he modified it a little: said he might have been mistaken, as to that particular, but knew he had seen them around the polls 'canvassing.'
Well Done! It is about time that more attention is given to the history of our battle with mosquitos. I live in a rural county of Florida and we have a very sophisticated mosquito control department. These days, control is mostly biological and preventative. Considering the history, the US Army Corp of Engineers in the early 1800s declarer Florida uninhabitable because of mosquitos. Ir is suppressing how unaware most people are of the battle that took and continues to take place.
I read that book about mosquitos a couple of years ago. Wow was that an eye opener.
Very informative. Thanks
Mind blowing episode, THG ! You are a national treasure !
I recall reading that Ranavalona the Mad of Madagascar once tried to weaponize mosquitoes to aid her kingdom in resisting French colonization. I don’t recall how effective it was though, but her plan involved catching them in Madagascar’s swamps and releasing them on French encampments.
Nothing to do with Malaria but I am fascinated by all the military headgear on display behind you in the videos. Maybe you could give us a guided tour of the hats?
ruclips.net/p/PLSnt4mJGJfGhaqf9Nk_fkzRlQNrsB2iMb
Yay! The Royal Canadian Mounted Police forge cap is back on the wall!
Great video! I used to let ads play but now I just hit the refresh button and skip them. I'll keep smashing the like button!
Finally a lesson that I could understand,it was taught this in high school just didn't get it thank you professor!
One of the great " indirect" losses from mosquitos was movie star Jane Mansfield.
In the south in the 1960 they had trucks driving around blowing out large quantities of pesticides. The trucks were called fog machines.
A semi-truck was hidden in the fog and was struck by a car carrying Jane Mansfield. All three people in the front seat were killed as the car went under the rear of the truck.
The result was a bar was added to the back of large trucks to prevent cars from going under the rear of the truck....The bar is called the Mansfield bar.
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In the 1950s there was a big boobed TV personality called Dagmar. When engineers started putting large dome lane separators on highways....they called them Dagmars.
Well done as always. Well researched, excellently presented, and eminently entertaining. Thank you.
Amazing rundown!
🤔 Who knew?
Fantastic episode! (but it may not help encourage people to clean their gutters, alas)
this guy would be my history teacher and id savor his every lesson with a hunger of learning
The Civil War story about the Mississippi River mosquito brought back memories of growing up in southeast Iowa. When you dropped down into the Mississippi valley in the summer, you were meant by those big boys. And of course, there were jokes to go along with them. One farm boy was cultivating the corn crop when two skeeters flew up to him and one said to the other, "Should we eat him here, or take him back to the river bank?". The other replied, "We better eat him here. If we take him back to the river the big boys will take him from us". I do not know if the farm boy had any proof to this encounter or not. I imagine it was just a case of some good old farm humor!
Funny, I remember a similar story told about the Mosquitoes in the Florida Everglades! You couldn't fan them away or brush them off, it was like the 'skeeters set up an derrick and were drilling for oil....
I grew up in SE Iowa and remember how hard it was to go down along the Mississippi River during sundown cause they seemed to attack your body with a vengence at that hour. Boy, was I glad when we moved to Las Vegas, no snow and no mosquitoes. It seems without still water(it evaporates quickly in the desert) they can not reproduce. We do get scorpions, snakes and the brown recluse but encounters are very uncommon.
@@johngreen3543 I grew up in western Louisa County, but loved to go to one of the quiet landings such as Toolsburough and watch the river tows maneuver up and down the river and listen to those old Detroit Diesels howl. It was beautiful at night watching the boats navigation lights and search lights in the moon lit river, but that was best done outside of skeeter season. I remember the welts were almost as round as a dime and it itched for about an hour something fierce. And you could hear them flying. Thank goodness we didn't have them on our farm, we were too far away from the river. The small ones around the farm were small and quiet, but had a bite that left you scratching for awhile. Unfortunately I didn't move far enough away to get away from skeeters. But the ones here in south central Nebraska are not as potent as the ones in southeast Iowa. Thank goodness!
@@ronfullerton3162 my experiences in my youth (some 65 years ago) was dominated by my desire to explore my hometown and in particular the Mississippi River. I lived on South Hill in Burlington Iowa. At the base of that hill was the rail yard of the Burlington Northern Railroad. All of the kids knew of this heavily wooded old beat up walkway which would take us to the part of the yard close to where the rail met the rail bridge. Off to the right just before the bridge was a never used siding which ran along the river. It ran for quite a distance. It went at least 5 miles cause I walked it. It eventually boarded Crapo Park. I would go along looking for caves to explore and old Indian sites where the Blackhawk Indians might have buried their dead. I would explore but never touch(too scared). Then hurry back home before the sun down and that is where the mosquitoes attached something fierce. I will always remember this fondly, except for the mosquito part.
@@johngreen3543 I went to SEIAC at Burlington when the college was up on top of Jefferson Street. And I lived part way down the bluff on Washington. I loved to run down the paths from Crapo Park down to Maternity Beach. It was a very nice area. And that old rail bridge is some of that old but beautiful engineering. Yes, the South Hill area was a nice area. Some of those old homes were something. Had family that lived there, and some of them are still in the Burlington area. I would love to get back there and spend a day just messing around. Loved the area! I have a sister in both Washington and Ainsworth, Iowa. Just don't get back as I should. The old Iowa farm boy has moved on, but part of my heart remains there. It was a great area to grow up in.
I think these videos are great. So many famous and obscure histories. I'd like to see LG do one on the history of the outhouse.
I took mefloquine during my 3 tours in Afghanistan every Monday, that’s 3 years worth of that shit. Every Monday night without fail the incredibly lucid and disturbing dreams would happen and I wasn’t the only one. My husband had the same thing and so did everyone else in my unit.
Thanks.
Love your work!
Very good history guy well done
Another great video.
Well done! Having a hard time finishing these dishes, as I try and focus on your many points. I knew they were dangerous? I didn't know they were that dangerous!
That last part was interesting about the effect of getting the shot. I remember going down the line In boot camp and getting a bunch of shots one I know was for malaria.
Probably your most informative videos, among many!!
Very timely, considering this year is the worst battle with mosquitoes I recall in my 70 plus years in the St Louis area.
If the mosquitoes have been terrible this year in Southern New England because of all the rain we've had.
So... Mosquitoes are the real illuminate of this world?
I had West Nile virus. Good times......not. Doing fine now.
Fantastic as usual....
St. Augustine, Florida is America's oldest European settlement. It should be a fairly large city by now, but is fairly small. Every few decades, yellow fever would hit and devastate the population. You can walk through old cemeteries in town and see that many of the grave markers have the same death date.
It is America's oldest CONTINUOUS settlement. If Pensacola wasn't temporarily abandoned after a terrible hurricane messed their crap up that would be the oldest as it was settled prior. They returned but by then St. Augustine was established.
@@wwiiinplastic4712 I didn't know that. Thanks.
Not sure I'd call the oldest city small, unless you're comparing it to Miami, Atlanta, NYC? My father has lived there over 20 yrs, & every time I trek the hr or so to visit traffic anywhere near US-1 is terrible & crime is no minor concern. Sad really, fascinating history that town & historic downtown is irreplaceable. I'd never turn down exploring there, it's just you have to tune out the big city chaos a stone's throw from the heart of it.
@@katmanluke7187 I was just there this summer. Yes, compared to Orlando, Jax, Tallahassee, possibly even a town like Gainesville it is relatively small but just spread out. My wife and girls enjoyed all the thrift stores there. Ate at Kate's on the Tolomoto.
@@katmanluke7187 I was thinking Jax or Tampa. Or that big thing in the center of he peninsula. US 1 is awful and makes it seem like a larger and more screwed up city. There' s just no North-South alternative. Downtown is great. We go there often. We still haven't seen everything. There are some very nice beaches there, too.
Fascinating! Thank you.
14:33 what a Sophie's Choice!
How could mosquitos be THAT interesting...sheesh. Yup, this is more interesting that I thought. Thanks, good sir.