Nature Bats Last - Dengue Fever Mosquitoes Getting Used to DEET Repellent

Uh oh. We think we are the ones in charge - grim joke - think again. Nature bats last and is always trying to find ways for its life forms - including us - to survive and reproduce. That's what drives drug resistance by TB, new forms of flu, mosquitoes evolving to get by our best shot at repelling them. And why over time humans who survive certain diseases pass on genes that better enable humans to survive in the long term and in the short term develop better immunity, the next time around. In short, we are not in charge of, or cannot escape the system, we are a part of it.

clipped from www.nature.com Mosquitoes inherit DEET resistance Genetic trait explains how some insects are unaffected by powerful repellent. Aedes aegypti is a species of mosquito that causes yellow fever, dengue fever and other viral diseases. Its blood-sucking females are not all cowed by DEET: around 13% of the laboratory populations tested by Logan's team would land on human arms covered in the repellent.