Mosquito: The Story of Man's Deadliest Foe [ハードカバー]

and makes one feel almost sentimental towards animal and plant life--except for flies; I can't work up any sentiment about them! -Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Prisoner for God : Letters and Papers from Prison

If I were to say to you that this book tells you everything you need to know about mosquitoes, your initial reaction, like mine, would likely be that you already know too much : they are damned annoying pests. But Andrew Spielman, a Harvard professor, and his coauthor, Michael D'Antonio, have produced a concise and very interesting volume about the mosquito that is well worth reading. The secret of their success lies in the fact that though Professor Spielman obviously feels that the mosquito is fascinating in its own right, the book focusses more on the deadly interaction between the bugs, the various diseases they transmit, and humankind. At a time when the whole Northeast braces to see where birds are dying of West Nile virus, this makes the book quite topical.

In a sense, the book has a tragic, or potentially tragic, arc to it. After some introductory material about mosquitoes, the authors go on to discuss the truly heroic efforts that were made to identify the cause of malaria, and once mosquitoes were identified as the culprits, to combat this pest. Eventually, this led to a wholesale effort to eradicate the disease entirely, an effort which obviously failed, despite some marked successes. In this section of the book Spielman is refreshingly forthright about the reasons for the ultimate failures and about what worked and what didn't. Essentially, success was predicated on : draining water sources that in the past had been allowed to stagnate; installing screens in homes and using netting at night; pouring oil on the standing water where mosquitoes breed; and brief but aggressive use of insecticides, like DDT; made it possible to limit and in some cases eliminate malaria outbreaks in human populations. It was not actually necessary to wipe out the mosquitoes, merely to deny them easy contact with already diseased humans.

But in recent decades a number of factors have combined to deter the application of these techniques. The most obvious has been the hysteria over DDT and other insecticides, much of it stirred up by Rachel Carson's book Silent Spring. The wild overreaction to potential problems with the way in which these chemicals were being used fifty years ago has made it difficult to deploy one of our most effective weapons in the fight against mosquitoes. Problems have also arisen because eradication programs are seen as interfering with the rights of natives and have been perceived as part of the broader imperialist, racist, hegemonic, imposition of Western will on Third World nations. Also, though the book does not discuss it, the current fetishisizing of wetlands seems as if it must inevitably create situations where human populations are once again living in close proximity to the miasmic waters where mosquitoes breed, a frightening reversal of the long and arduous drainage process that had done so much to limit this kind of contact.

Meanwhile, man has continued to expand his reach into the remotest corners of the globe, in the process being exposed to rarer and less well understood diseases than malaria. At the same time, air travel and shipping (particularly of old tires, as the reader will be fascinated to find out) have served to spread both mosquitoes and these diseases throughout the world. Such are the elements that went into the appearance of West Nile virus in New England over the past few years.

Mosquito discusses this history and the many issues involved in a clear and fair fashion. The authors avoid easy blame-casting and are generous--perhaps overgenerous--in assessing folks motives, but they make it quite obvious that we've placed ourselves in a dangerous situation. After a years long struggle against the mosquito, we seem to be quite consciously ignoring everything we've learned, to have surrendered our most effective weapons in the struggle against one of nature's most potent disease vectors. The book concludes with a series of eminently sensible steps that we can all take, and steps that public health officials must take, in order for man to coexist with mosquitoes, without putting ourselves at unnecessary and potentially disastrous risk. Even if most of us will feel that some of the motivation for these measured steps stems from a little to great a respect and fondness for the mosquito on Spielman's part, it is nonetheless true that by the end of the book, he's made a compelling case that, even if we won't all love them as he does, we are likely to have to accept the idea that, however bothersome, they will always be with us. His suggestions are sensible and moderate enough that it seems like that we should be able to do so.

GRADE : B+

If you are like me and seem to attract these buzzing beasts you will enjoy this book, although bear in mind it is rather technical and written mainly for the scientifically minded.

Some useful information includes:

-carbon dioxide and heat attracts them, (but it doesn't seem to be explained here why they seem to like some people more than others, or whether it is just that some people react to bites more than others),
-various species attack different parts of the body (eg some the ankles, some the head),
-some don't attack humans at all,
-some attack only humans and monkeys,
-colours vary-some are black and white striped, (these cause yellow fever), others are brown, others dominantly grey.
-the mosquito has had a significant effect on human history through various mosquito borne diseases (eg Dengue, Yellow Fever, Malaria, Encephalitus, and Rift Valley Fever).
-various mosquito-borne diseases are exclusive to birds, some cross from birds to man, some from horses to man, some from monkeys to man, etc.

Some historical plagues and the diseases transmitted by mosquitoes are described eg Dengue, Yellow Fever, Malaria , Encephalitus, and Rift Valley Fever. Historically, it was initially ridiculed that tiny organisms could carry tiny diseases, but careful observation and scientific method eventually won the day over 'folk psychology'. Mosquitoes, through recognition of their association with yellow fever and malaria, played a major part in the development of germ theory, and by association much of modern medicine. Pasteur's germ theory, partially based on work done on mosquitoes as disease carriers, contributed much to humankind's better general health in the latter 19th century in particular. Good sanitation and community health went hand in hand with ongoing scientific research, including that done on mosquito-borne diseases.

Sanitation has been surprisingly effective against mosquito-borne diseases. Limiting stagnant water and widespread use of household netting has been proven to greatly reduce disease rates. The presence of marshes and wetlands increases prevalence, but so does the presence of the longer- lived and more aggressive species (Incidentally, Alaska has amongst the most aggressive mossies of all-which anyone who has been there in the summer will tell you).

A useful read, scientifically astute, but perhaps a little dry, along with most other medical-style texts I have read. Worthwhile.