Mosquito.buzz Blog

Summer is now in full swing... and so is mosquito season. With public health concerns and the looming threat of the Zika virus growing across North America, members of the Mosquito.buzz team were extremely fortunate to spend a day at the University of Kentucky, learning from top researchers in the field of mosquito control.

Dr. Grayson Brown is one of the leading researchers at the University of Kentucky, and kindly spent the day with the team at Mosquito.buzz, comprising of Shawn Karn (Technical Director), Jordan Lavin (Chief Operating Officer), and Steven Fulford (Senior Field Technician).

You're enjoying a romantic picnic by the lake, the sun is going down, and everything is perfect... until BOOM, a swarm of mosquitoes cramp your style and start eating you alive.

No matter what kind of climate you live in, you've probably been bitten by a mosquito one too many times. That irritating feeling of itchy skin followed by redness is a typical allergic reaction to mosquito bites that most people experience. But for people with extreme mosquito bite allergies, the symptoms can be a little harder to manage. 

Skeeter Syndrome is an allergy to mosquito saliva, resulting in severe allergic reactions. Mosquitoes inject a thinning agent into our blood, since it's too thick for them to siphon as is. That agent is their saliva, which contains allergenic polypeptides that cause the body to react to the enzymes. For people with Skeeter Syndrome, this can mean a whole lot of discomfort.

Understanding the different stages of the mosquito’s life cycle can help prevent and effectively eliminate populations before they become a problem. All mosquito species have four distinct stages to their life cycle. Egg, Larvae, Pupa, and Adult. There are over 300 species of mosquitoes in the world. The most common and most dangerous, are the Culex mosquitoes. The Culex pipiens is the main carrier of the West Nile virus.