Word: culex
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...During dry periods the water in sewers tend to stagnate, and that is a good breeding place for Culex,” the genus of mosquito responsible for the spread of West Nile, Tesh said...
...arrived from southern Russia, currently the site of a large West Nile outbreak. If mosquitoes had gorged on his blood, they could have transmitted the virus to birds by biting them in turn--thus starting an infectious cycle deadly for some humans and birds, though never for the carrier Culex pipiens. It's a scenario, says Monath, that's become increasingly common in a jet-setting...
With the exception of the common mosquito (Culex vulgarly), no warm-weather animal is as relentless as the Late-Summer Athlete (Hospes strenuous). As the calendar winds down to Labor Day, he (or she) coaxes colleagues away from a leisurely meal, hauls them up from blankets in the sun and hammocks in the shade-all in the name of Sport. For the victim, no pest coil or 90-day collar will serve as repellent. No, the only proven method of defense is Summer Gamesmanship...
...Anopheles mosquito, which can transmit malaria from infected to healthy humans. Though not immune to insecticides, that bug proliferates in stagnant water and may spread more and more disease. Reason: about one percent of returning Southeast Asian veterans are infected with malaria. What really worries health officials, though, is Culex tarsalis, the second mosquito species that has foiled all insecticides in California. Culex transmits encephalitis, a disease that attacks the human brain. California's most recent encephalitis outbreak occurred in 1952, the year DDT failed, and a major flood turned much of the Great Central Valley into mosquito breeding...
Biological Controls. To combat California's rampant mosquitoes, researchers hope to develop new pesticides, but mainly for "emergencies." They now prefer to use the bugs' natural enemies. Culex, for example, can be controlled by the mosquito fish (gambusia) and the common guppy which eat mosquito larvae in water. Certain bacilli, when applied to pasture land, also kill mosquito larvae. Another method includes releasing large numbers of male mosquitoes of the same species but of different strains. Because of genetic incompatibilities, the eggs of the females fail to hatch...