Malaria, Mosquitoes, and Marc

Marc Klowden takes our class
to the wonderful world of mosquitoes and malaria.

   In early October, Dr. Marc Klowden, a visiting scientist from the University of Idaho, talked to us about mosquitoes and the way they transmit malaria, a disease that infects more people than the population of Idaho! He also talked about the way a mosquito reproduces, how they bite us, and collect our blood. He even had a volunteer come up to get bitten by a mosquito. After the presentation he gave us all Mosquito larva to watch grow. Here's some of what we learned.

(Right) one of our class mates volunteered to let a mosquito suck blood. (Left) Here is a close up picture of the mosquito biting our"victim".

Each year, 350 million people are infected with Malaria and 2 million of them die.

Mosquitoes simply transmit Malaria and don't cause it (parasites actually cause it).

Females feed on blood of mammals while the male feeds on sugar.

Mosquitoes reach maturity in 10 days and then live 2 more weeks.

Mosquitoes can hold their breath about 4 or 5 minutes

Bacillus thuringiasis Israelensis is a bacteria which is very effective in killing the female mosquito.

Their are four types of Malaria and only one is lethal.

This information was taking from the notes we took during the presentation so as you see we learned a lot!  Thank you so much Dr. Klowden.