All rights reserved. In the movie Jurassic Park , a mosquito found embedded in a piece of amber is the key to the resurrection of dinosaur life. That was, of course, Hollywood. What is real is that the pesky little buzzers have survived since the Jurassic period despite every effort to eradicate them from the Earth. In Alabama, where mosquitoes flourish in warmer months, it is often joked that the mosquito should be the state bird.
People here laugh about mosquitoes carrying off small children.
Unfortunately, the growing number of U.S. deaths resulting from mosquito-borne diseases makes the mosquito nothing to laugh about. Recent studies have shown that methods believed to be effective in deterring biting mosquitoes often do not work. A study published in Ento mological News, the bible of insect control specialists, shows the bug-zappers used by millions of Americans are basically ineffective as a mosquito deterrent. That study showed that of the 13,798 bugs killed by the zappper tested, only 31 were mosquitoes. About half of those mosquitoes were non-biting males.