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Clouds of aggressive nickel-sized mosquitoes called gallinippers have descended on 27 counties in North Carolina, the result of untold numbers of the insect’s eggs being activated by the catastrophic flooding caused by hurricane Florence. Unlike most mosquitoes, Gallinippers can lay their eggs in dry conditions, of which can lay dormant for months or years, and hatch when wet conditions develop. The females can be particularly aggressive, mobbing large mammals such as humans or even cattle in order to feed.
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Another summer has passed, we’ve closed up our grills after Labor Day, and some of us are still scratching our bug bites. Is this some sort of conspiracy? Because when it come to mosquitoes, some of us get bitten more than others. And how do these pesky bugs sniff out humans with the tastiest blood? It turns out they have more than one set of odor sniffers. This may help scientists develop better mosquito REPELLANT.

Researcher Jason Pitts says, “There is a good chance that this [newly discovered] set of receptors may be specifically tuned to detect a number of the odorants given off by humans. If this is the case then it is quite likely that it will play a critical role in attempts to develop improved lures and repellents to control the spread of malaria.”
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