The sun fades into dusk. All is good. Then you hear that buzz.
Mosquitoes. Ouch! All you can do now is reach for the spray or
dash inside.

A University of Georgia scientist, though, is searching for
better options. He’s finding out what makes a mosquito be a
mosquito.

It’s all in the hormones, says Mark Brown, an entomologist with
the UGA College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences. By
studying the chemical messengers in mosquitoes, scientists may
be
able to develop novel control measures in the future.

“What we do is identify the hormones that are released after a
mosquito takes a blood meal,” Brown said. Female mosquitoes need
blood meals to stimulate reproduction.

“Those hormones then do different things to tissues in the
female,” he said. “Ultimately, two to three days later, the
female is ready to lay her eggs.”

Female mosquitoes can live a few months. During her life, she
can
take a blood meal every three to four days. But she may not get
all the blood she needs from one host. It may take several small
meals from many hosts before she gets a full belly.

The Difference

“We’re learning how similar mosquitoes are to other animals,”
Brown said. “The hormones are similar to other animals, like
humans, cats, dogs, fish, grasshoppers. They all more or less
use
the same chemical messengers to guide the process that makes
mature eggs.”

However, with all the similarities, mosquitoes do have some
small
differences. And that’s where Brown is concentrating his
research.

A particular reproductive hormone in the mosquito brain isn’t
found in humans.

“We might be able to disguise a chemical, or a mimic, to disrupt
its message,” he said. The mosquito would not be able to
reproduce if it was exposed to the chemical mimic.

He has also identified a peptide hormone that controls
host-seeking behavior. It’s possible that if this hormone could
be injected into the female, she wouldn’t be interested in
taking
a blood meal.

“We do the basic research,” Brown said. “Then, at some point, it
goes from our lab to an interested private party (to be
developed).”

Deadly Nuisance

While mosquitoes can be extremely bothersome to anyone outside
as
dusk falls, they can be much more than just a nuisance. “Around
the world, mosquitoes can carry a variety of diseases,” Brown
said.

When female mosquitoes take blood meals, they can also pick up
pathogens that cause disease. They can carry diseases such as
malaria or West Nile Virus and nematodes that cause heart worms
in animals.

The disease pathogens can live, grow and mature in the mosquito.
Then, when the mosquito takes another meal, they can be passed
on
to another host through the mosquito’s saliva.

Tough Alien

The yellow fever mosquito used to be the predominant mosquito in
Georgia. However, in the past decade, it has been pushed out by
a
much more aggressive foreign invader, the Asian tiger
mosquito.

This tenacious little alien made its way to American shores in
tires. “At the time, the United States was a major tire dump for
the world,” Brown said.

The Asian species was first reported in port areas. It has
since,
because of its more aggressive nature, “swept through the
South,”
Brown said.

Many questions about this species remain unanswered. Does it
carry West Nile Virus? Heart worms? Other diseases?

“Every day we have more and more tools available,” he said. “And
every day we’re learning another small aspect of the process and
putting the puzzle together.”

Brown’s research is funded by the National Institutes of Health.