3 new ways to kill mosquitoes
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0:01 - 0:07(Mosquito buzzing)
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0:10 - 0:11(Swat)
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0:13 - 0:15Gotcha.
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0:16 - 0:17Mosquitoes.
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0:18 - 0:19I hate them.
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0:20 - 0:21Don't you?
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0:22 - 0:25That awful buzzing sound at night
around your ears -
0:25 - 0:26that drives you absolutely crazy?
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0:27 - 0:30Knowing that she wants
to stick a needle in your skin -
0:30 - 0:31and suck out your blood?
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0:32 - 0:33That's awful, right?
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0:33 - 0:38In fact, there's only one good thing
I can think of when it gets to mosquitoes. -
0:39 - 0:41When they fly into our bedroom at night,
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0:42 - 0:43they prefer to bite my wife.
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0:44 - 0:45(Laughter)
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0:45 - 0:46But that's fascinating, right?
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0:46 - 0:50Why does she receive more bites than I do?
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0:51 - 0:53And the answer is smell,
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0:53 - 0:54the smell of her body.
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0:55 - 0:59And since we all smell different
and produce chemicals on our skin -
0:59 - 1:02that either attract or repel mosquitoes,
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1:02 - 1:05some of us are just
more attractive than others. -
1:05 - 1:11So my wife smells nicer than I do,
or I just stink more than she does. -
1:12 - 1:18Either way, mosquitoes find us in the dark
by sniffing us out. They smell us. -
1:18 - 1:21And during my PhD,
I wanted to know exactly -
1:21 - 1:25what chemicals from our skin
African malaria mosquitoes use -
1:25 - 1:26to track us down at night.
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1:28 - 1:30And there's a whole range
of compounds that they do use. -
1:31 - 1:33And this was not going to be an easy task.
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1:34 - 1:37And therefore we set up
various experiments. -
1:38 - 1:40Why did we set up these experiments?
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1:40 - 1:42Because half the world's population
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1:42 - 1:46runs the risk of contracting
a killer disease like malaria -
1:46 - 1:48through a simple mosquito bite.
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1:49 - 1:51Every 30 seconds,
somewhere on this planet, -
1:51 - 1:54a child dies of malaria,
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1:54 - 1:57and Paul Levy this morning,
he was talking about the metaphor -
1:57 - 1:59of the 727 crashing
into the United States. -
1:59 - 2:05Well, in Africa, we have
the equivalent of seven jumbo 747s -
2:05 - 2:06crashing every day.
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2:07 - 2:11But perhaps if we can attract
these mosquitoes to traps, -
2:11 - 2:12bait it with our smell,
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2:12 - 2:15we may be able
to stop transmission of disease. -
2:16 - 2:19Now, solving this puzzle
was not an easy thing, -
2:19 - 2:22because we produce hundreds
of different chemicals on the skin, -
2:22 - 2:24but we undertook
some remarkable experiments -
2:24 - 2:28that managed us to resolve
this puzzle very quickly indeed. -
2:28 - 2:31First, we observed
that not all mosquito species -
2:31 - 2:33bite on the same part of the body.
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2:34 - 2:35Strange.
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2:35 - 2:36So we set up an experiment
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2:36 - 2:40where we put a naked volunteer
in a large cage, -
2:40 - 2:41(Laughter)
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2:41 - 2:43and in that cage, we released mosquitoes
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2:43 - 2:46to see where they were biting
on the body of that person. -
2:47 - 2:49And we found some remarkable differences.
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2:49 - 2:52On the left here you see the bites
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2:52 - 2:54by the Dutch malaria mosquito
on this person. -
2:54 - 2:57They had a very strong preference
for biting on the face. -
2:58 - 3:00In contrast, the African malaria mosquito
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3:00 - 3:06had a very strong preference for biting
the ankles and feet of this person. -
3:06 - 3:08And that, of course,
we should have known all along, -
3:08 - 3:11because they're called
mosqui-toes, you see? -
3:11 - 3:13(Laughter)
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3:13 - 3:14That's right.
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3:14 - 3:16(Applause)
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3:16 - 3:20And so we started
focusing on the smell of feet ... -
3:21 - 3:23on the smell of human feet,
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3:23 - 3:27until we came across
a remarkable statement in the literature -
3:27 - 3:31that said that cheese smells after feet
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3:31 - 3:32rather than the reverse.
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3:33 - 3:34Think of it.
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3:34 - 3:37And this triggered us
to do a remarkable experiment. -
3:37 - 3:42We tried, with a tiny little piece
of Limburger cheese, -
3:42 - 3:44which smells badly after feet,
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3:44 - 3:46to attract African malaria mosquitoes.
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3:46 - 3:48And you know what? It worked.
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3:49 - 3:52In fact, it worked so well
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3:52 - 3:57that now we have a synthetic mixture
of the aroma of Limburger cheese -
3:57 - 3:59that we're using in Tanzania
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3:59 - 4:00and has been shown there
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4:00 - 4:04to be two to three times
more attractive to mosquitoes than humans. -
4:05 - 4:08Limburg, be proud of your cheese,
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4:08 - 4:11as it is now used
in the fight against malaria. -
4:11 - 4:18(Applause)
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4:18 - 4:20That's the cheese, just to show you.
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4:21 - 4:24My second story is remarkable as well.
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4:25 - 4:27It's about man's best friend.
It's about dogs. -
4:28 - 4:31And I will show you how we can use dogs
in the fight against malaria. -
4:33 - 4:36One of the best ways of killing mosquitoes
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4:36 - 4:39is not to wait until
they fly around like adults -
4:39 - 4:41and bite people and transmit disease.
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4:42 - 4:45It's to kill them when they're still
in the water as larvae. -
4:46 - 4:47Why?
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4:47 - 4:50Because they are just like the CIA.
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4:50 - 4:54In that pool of water,
these larvae are concentrated. -
4:54 - 4:57They're all together there.
They are immobile. -
4:57 - 4:59They can't escape from that water.
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4:59 - 5:00They can't fly.
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5:00 - 5:03And they're accessible.
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5:03 - 5:07You can actually walk up to that pool
and you can kill them there, right? -
5:08 - 5:12So the problem that we face with this
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5:12 - 5:16is that, throughout the landscape,
all these pools of water with the larvae, -
5:16 - 5:18they are scattered all over the place,
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5:18 - 5:21which makes it very hard
for an inspector like this -
5:21 - 5:24to actually find all these breeding sites
and treat them with insecticides. -
5:25 - 5:29And last year we thought very, very hard,
how can we resolve this problem? -
5:30 - 5:34Until we realized that just like us --
we have a unique smell -- -
5:34 - 5:38mosquito larvae
also have a very unique smell. -
5:38 - 5:41And so we set up another crazy experiment,
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5:41 - 5:43because we collected
the smell of these larvae, -
5:43 - 5:46put it on pieces of cloth,
and then did something very remarkable. -
5:47 - 5:49Here we have a bar with four holes
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5:49 - 5:52and we put the smell
of these larvae in the left hole. -
5:52 - 5:53Oh, that was very quick.
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5:53 - 5:57And then you see the dog.
It's called Tweed. It's a border collie. -
5:57 - 5:59He's examining these holes
and now he's got it already. -
5:59 - 6:02He's going back to check
the control holes again, -
6:02 - 6:03but he's coming back to the first one,
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6:03 - 6:05and now he's locking into that smell,
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6:05 - 6:09which means that now,
we can use dogs with these inspectors -
6:09 - 6:12to much better find the breeding sites
of mosquitoes in the field, -
6:12 - 6:15and therefore have
a much bigger impact on malaria. -
6:15 - 6:17This lady is Ellen van der Zweep.
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6:17 - 6:19She's one of the best
dog trainers in the world, -
6:19 - 6:21and she believes
that we can do a lot more. -
6:22 - 6:26Since we also know that people
that carry malaria parasites -
6:26 - 6:28smell different compared to people
that are uninfected, -
6:29 - 6:33she's convinced that we can train dogs
to find people that carry the parasite. -
6:35 - 6:38That means that in a population
where malaria has gone down all the way -
6:38 - 6:41and there's few people
remaining with parasites, -
6:41 - 6:42that the dogs can find these people,
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6:42 - 6:46we can treat them with antimalarial drugs
and give the final blow to malaria. -
6:46 - 6:49Man's best friend
in the fight against malaria. -
6:50 - 6:52My third story is perhaps
even more remarkable ... -
6:53 - 6:57and, I should say, has never been shown
to the public until today. -
6:57 - 6:58(Audience cheers)
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6:58 - 6:59Yeah.
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7:00 - 7:05It's a crazy story, but I believe
it's perhaps the best and ultimate revenge -
7:05 - 7:06against mosquitoes ever.
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7:06 - 7:08In fact, people have told me
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7:08 - 7:11that now they will enjoy
being bitten by mosquitoes. -
7:13 - 7:14And the question of course is,
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7:14 - 7:17what would make someone
enjoy being bitten by mosquitoes? -
7:18 - 7:20And the answer I have right here ...
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7:21 - 7:23in my pocket --
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7:23 - 7:24(Laughter)
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7:24 - 7:25if I get it.
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7:26 - 7:27It's a tablet.
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7:28 - 7:29A simple tablet,
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7:29 - 7:32and when I take it with water ...
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7:32 - 7:34it does miracles.
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7:37 - 7:38Thank you.
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7:44 - 7:47Now, let me show you how this works.
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7:48 - 7:51Here in this box, I have a cage
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7:52 - 7:59with several hundred
hungry female mosquitoes ... -
7:59 - 8:00(Laughter)
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8:00 - 8:03that I'm just about to release.
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8:03 - 8:05(Laughter)
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8:05 - 8:06Just kidding, just kidding.
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8:06 - 8:07(Laughter)
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8:07 - 8:10What I'm going to show you
is, I'm gonna stick my arm into it -
8:10 - 8:13and I will show you
how quickly they will bite. -
8:13 - 8:15There we go.
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8:15 - 8:18Don't worry, I do this
all the time in the lab. -
8:18 - 8:20There we go.
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8:21 - 8:22OK.
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8:22 - 8:24Now, on the video --
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8:25 - 8:27on the video here,
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8:27 - 8:29I'm going to show you
exactly the same thing, -
8:29 - 8:31except that what
I'm showing you on the video -
8:31 - 8:34happened one hour after I took the tablet.
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8:35 - 8:36Have a look.
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8:37 - 8:38That doesn't work.
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8:38 - 8:39OK. Sorry about that.
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8:40 - 8:43I'm sticking in my arm,
I'm giving them a big juicy blood meal, -
8:43 - 8:45I'm shaking them off,
and we follow them through time -
8:45 - 8:48to see these mosquitoes
get very, very sick indeed, -
8:48 - 8:49here shown in fast motion.
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8:50 - 8:54And three hours later,
what we see at the bottom of the cage -
8:54 - 8:55is dead mosquitoes ...
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8:56 - 8:58very dead mosquitoes.
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8:59 - 9:01And I'm going to say,
ladies and gentlemen, -
9:01 - 9:03we have swapped the cards with mosquitoes.
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9:03 - 9:06They don't kill us. We kill them.
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9:06 - 9:13(Applause)
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9:16 - 9:17Now --
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9:18 - 9:21(Laughter)
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9:21 - 9:23Maastricht, be prepared.
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9:23 - 9:25Now, think of what we can do with this.
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9:25 - 9:27We can actually use this
to contain outbreaks -
9:27 - 9:31of mosquito-born diseases,
of epidemics, right? -
9:31 - 9:33And better still,
imagine what would happen -
9:33 - 9:37if, in a very large area, everyone would
take these drugs, for just three weeks. -
9:38 - 9:40That would give us an opportunity
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9:40 - 9:42to actually eliminate
malaria as a disease. -
9:42 - 9:46So cheese, dogs and a pill
to kill mosquitoes. -
9:46 - 9:49That's the kind of out-of-the-box
science that I love doing ... -
9:50 - 9:52for the betterment of mankind,
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9:52 - 9:54but especially for her,
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9:54 - 9:58so that she can grow up
in a world without malaria. -
9:58 - 9:59Thank you.
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9:59 - 10:00(Applause)
- Title:
- 3 new ways to kill mosquitoes
- Speaker:
- Bart Knols
- Description:
-
We can use a mosquito's own instincts against her. At TEDxMaastricht speaker Bart Knols demos the imaginative solutions his team is developing to fight malaria -- including Limburger cheese and a deadly pill.
(Filmed at TEDxMaastricht.) - Video Language:
- English
- Team:
- closed TED
- Project:
- TEDTalks
- Duration:
- 10:20
Krystian Aparta commented on English subtitles for 3 new ways to kill mosquitoes | ||
Krystian Aparta edited English subtitles for 3 new ways to kill mosquitoes | ||
Krystian Aparta edited English subtitles for 3 new ways to kill mosquitoes | ||
Joanna Pietrulewicz edited English subtitles for 3 new ways to kill mosquitoes | ||
Joanna Pietrulewicz edited English subtitles for 3 new ways to kill mosquitoes | ||
Joanna Pietrulewicz edited English subtitles for 3 new ways to kill mosquitoes | ||
Brian Greene edited English subtitles for 3 new ways to kill mosquitoes | ||
Thu-Huong Ha edited English subtitles for 3 new ways to kill mosquitoes |
Krystian Aparta
The English transcript was updated on 6/27/2017.