D (6:34)

Thank you. Buzz, buzz.

C (6:35)

I feel buzz. Yes. What's the buzz? What's the buzz on mosquitoes? So I do wonder about this. People make different claims about mosquitoes and I'm pretty sure, and you can fill me in if you'd like, that I have heard that different people have different sensitivities to mosquito bites. There is a portion of the population that doesn't really scratch a mosquito bite. They're not allergic. It's not exactly what I'm asking. I'm asking, when mosquitoes attack or bite, how do they make their decision? And how do we know how they make their decision? Is one person just as tasty as the next? Do you know anything about this?

D (7:15)

I've been wondering about this forever. So my husband Steve is always claiming that he is specifically attractive to mosquitoes. He's like the Brad Pitt of mosquitoes. And I never have believed him. So I was excited to dive into the scientific literature to find out if indeed he is a whiny crybaby or if he's just very attractive to mosquitoes.

C (7:36)

Well, he wouldn't be the Brad Pitt of mosquitoes. Right. He'd be the Jennifer Aniston pre breakup of mosquitoes. And well, he'd be Brad Pitt. And mosquitoes would be the Jennifer Aniston slash Angelina Jones.

D (7:51)

All women.

C (7:52)

All women, yeah. Let's be honest. Okay, great.

D (7:55)

And mosquitoes, the ones that bite you, are always female.

C (7:58)

Oh, okay. So the analogy is even more apt than I stumbled into. All right, so how did they study this? If they do indeed study this? And I'm going to guess they studied it because you studied them studying it.

D (8:10)

Yes. There are tens of thousands of articles on mosquitoes and at least a thousand on specific attractants of mosquitoes. And the early ones really used human beings. One of my favorite ones that I came across was this study in 1993 in Gambia, where they constructed huts for the study. They lined them up along a river during mosquito season and put. There was six huts, and they put six men in the huts and then shuffled them around because they're good scientists to see if particular men were more attractive to the mosquitoes. And then they, they, they counted the mosquitoes that were in the hut afterwards the next morning. And they also counted the number of mosquitoes that had human blood in their bellies.

C (9:07)

Oh, they didn't just count the bites on the guys.

D (9:12)

No, because like a mosquito could bite you twice, I guess.

C (9:15)

Yeah, yeah. And why would anyone volunteer for this? Being in a hut filled with mosquito.

D (9:21)

Assignment was like $5 a day and dinner.

C (9:27)

And in Gambia in the early 90s. Yes, that was more than the going rate. And dinner for you and the mosquitoes. Okay, so why, why did these. How many gentlemen was it?

D (9:40)

They actually had nine men in the study.

C (9:42)

Oh, nine rotating men. All right. What did they find about these nine bitten men or not bitten, as the science may reveal?

D (9:49)

Well, it was really interesting. They found that there were some men that were consistently getting more mosquitoes in their huts and also some men that were consistently getting bitten more than others. But they weren't necessarily always the same men. Some men were attracting the mosquitoes but were not able to close the deal with their mosquitoes, whereas others were attracting the mosquitoes and getting bitten up. And then, of course, there were the ones that were just unattractive to mosquitoes.

C (10:17)

Oh, really? So what would be a circumstance where mosquitoes would enter your hut and not want to bite you? What kind of guy is that?

D (10:25)

It is a person whose skin does not taste very good to mosquitoes. So they'll land on you and they taste your skin and they, they don't like what they taste, so they fly away.

C (10:39)

Interesting. And why would they land on you in the first place, though? Why would they think they might like the taste?

D (10:46)

So mosquitoes use a bunch of different sensory systems to find humans. And by the way, there's more than 1,000 different species of mosquitoes and only a small number of species specialize in humans. There's one that specialize in bats, and there's ones that specialize in frogs and goats. But the human specialists. Well, actually all of the mosquitoes used for long range detection. They use carbon dioxide. They sense your carbon dioxide plume coming from your Breath. So therefore, if you are attracting a lot of mosquitoes, it may be because you're breathing a lot. A larger person is going to be attracting more mosquitoes from a distance of 100ft to 30ft. Also, pregnant women breathe more, I guess, have more carbon dioxide. And people with malaria. There's something about the malaria parasite makes you more attractive to mosquitoes.

C (11:49)

Yeah, that's maybe how you got malaria in the first place. Kind of sad, the malaria victims not getting a break. I'd also like to note that we don't have the name at our fingertips. But instead of comparing Steve to the Brad Pitt of the mosquito world, he could be whatever the most attractive goat or frog is, depending on that variety of mosquito. I just wanted to put that out there.

D (12:10)

Yeah, we don't know the Brad Pitt of goats.

C (12:12)

We don't. So what is the circumstance where the mosquito. Now I'm understanding. Big CO2 emitters get a mosquito landing on them. Ooh, this could be good. What is the flavor? What is the quality of someone who could be a nice meal, wherein the mosquito says, you know what? Not even a doggy bag. I'm not biting.

D (12:35)

That's a little bit of a mystery. Scientists know that mosquitoes prefer a less diverse microbiome on your skin. Basically, the mosquitoes are cueing in on your lactic acid, which is produced by your Ekyne sweat glands. Actually, no. And then lots of bacteria feed on it and then produce their own gases. So the mosquitoes actually have a mysterious preference, a sort of umami flavor that they are looking for, and people don't really know what it is. But we do know that you can increase your attractiveness to mosquitoes with beer. Pretty consistently interesting. Yeah. And some people become more attractive to mosquitoes if they eat bananas.

C (13:28)

Some people. Now, look, this may be too personal and getting into your relationship too much, but is Steve a big beer drinker? Is he pregnant? Does he have malaria? Big breather? Any of these other qualities that would make him attractive to mosquitoes?

D (13:45)

Steve is a large, sweaty guy. And so he. And so he is attractive. Mosquitoes on several levels. They're also looking for your heat signature. So Steve is a giant mosquito billboard. And I would.

C (13:58)

You could just stop at giant. I've met Steve. He's large. He's. I'm not small. He's among the bigger people I've interacted with.

D (14:07)

Yeah, he's a big guy, and I guess that makes him a big mosquito beacon. So he's attracting mosquitoes. And I would venture to guess that they think he's tasty because his skin and his blood is tasty because that's another thing. Mosquitoes are actually also tasting your blood and looking for particular amino acids and. And they won't necessarily feed off of you if they think they don't like your blood.

C (14:30)

So I get these nine guys in a hut and some other studies. But how do they find all this out? I also understand, oh, maybe it's bananas. We have a theory, but how do they really pursue the theory and, you know, put it in a paper so that one day a Sadie Dingfelder might share her wisdom with us.

D (14:48)

So the early studies, like the 1993 one in Gambia and another one in Tanzania used whole human beings in huts. And the one in Tanzania I was really obsessed with because they turned these huts into lobster traps, basically where the mosquitoes could get in but they could not get out. Early mosquito research also had a confounding problem because they made the participants count their own mosquitoes. These were big breakthrough studies in that they had researchers, research assistants counting the mosquitoes. They also used guinea pigs. Sometimes they would like shave guinea pigs or they used like human volunteers and just like a body part like an arm. But the big what, like they stick.

C (15:31)

The arm just in a special sleeve with that and they let the mosquitoes in.

D (15:36)

Yeah.

C (15:37)

Oh my God.

D (15:39)

But we, we stopped having to give animals and humans mosquito bites in 2013.

C (15:45)

We.

D (15:45)

When they developed something called. Well, it's called an assay or an assay, A glide tube assay. And what it is is there's this. It kind of looks like Saran Wrap. It's a parafilm membrane which is partially paraffin wax and also partially plastic and that makes a skin like membrane. And then originally they put blood underneath that membrane, but. But later they would put sort of a blood like mixture that they would color and then they could use the color of the mosquitoes to tell which of two options they were feeding from.

C (16:25)

Yeah, I mean, this is fascinating. The blood like mixture. Scientists bring their talents to bear in so many ways. But whoever invented the blood like mixture, his name though lost to history. What an advancement. I say put him up there with the Jonas sock. The man who made the blood like mixture for the paraffin parafilm sleeve, by the way, are humans. So you mentioned goats, you mentioned toads. And different mosquitoes specialize. But is it the case that if there is a large piece of fauna. I shouldn't say piece species around like a cow. Right. I'm thinking of Gambia. There might be some cattle. There will they attract the mosquito just because they're bigger and possibly breathing more than a human being will.

D (17:08)

There are species of mosquitoes that prefer cattle but will go for humans. And so in those cases, having cows around acts as a decoy and reduces the number of bites the humans get. So I'm thinking that Steve is actually maybe attracting the mosquitoes away from me and getting bitten more.

C (17:30)

Oh, that's so nice. Right? You went into it thinking he's a big crybaby. You come out and he's a. He's a hero to you.

D (17:38)

He's a.

C (17:39)

He's. He's like a secret Service agent throwing himself in front of the bullet.

D (17:43)

Yeah. This whole time I just thought I was very stoic, but it turns out I'm just not being bothered by mosquitoes because he is.

C (17:49)

All right, I'm very impressed with the studies. I'm very impressed with your study of the studies. I think we have a good answer to our original question. Some people says Steve are just tastier to mosquitoes. Maybe we could even say some people are just more attractive to mosquitoes. Is that bullshit?

D (18:11)

It is not bullshit.

C (18:12)

And Steve is one.

D (18:14)

I think so. Yeah.

C (18:15)

And if he, he can't shrink, but if he drank less beer, got less pregnant, and ate fewer bananas, well, then you might be the recipient of more mosquito bites.

D (18:25)

Exercise, too. If you exercise, you raise your body temperature and your sweat signature and your CO2 exhalations.

C (18:34)

Right. So it's a conundrum. Right. If you want to lose mass, you have to exercise. But when you exercise, you will have the opposite effect of losing that mass in that mosquitoes will still be attracted to you. Some scientists say that there are other benefits to exercise and losing a lot of mass. I only think it's to decrease your appeal to mosquitoes, but so be it. You know, this is what science says. It's the best we could do.

D (18:57)

Can I tell you something else that's crazy about mosquitoes?

C (19:00)

Yes.

D (19:01)

Okay. They have like a little tube, like, nose looking thing. It's called a proboscis, but we usually say probus proboscis, but it's pronounced proboscis by scientists. And inside of it are three pairs of specialized equipment, basically that come out like a nightmare. And two of them saw into your skin. Two of them are straws that have taste buds that specifically seek out your blood vessels. And two of them hold open your skin like little forceps.

C (19:35)

Oh, my God. Like, I didn't think we'd learn the exact mechanisms that mosquitoes suck the blood out of you and say, oh, that's cuter than I expected. But that's so much worse.

D (19:46)

It's so terrible. And then also they spit into you. Their spit contains anticoagulants and things that dilate your blood vessels so that they can get more blood.

C (20:00)

Yeah. Which is part of the reason we itch, right?

D (20:03)

Yeah, yeah.

C (20:04)

And the bumps. So, like, there's a whole. I don't know if it's debate, you know, they try to sterilize mosquito communities, essentially eliminate mosquitoes. And then I have read that discussions, hey, are we playing God? And I always think, yeah, maybe. I mean, does me like, not living in a hut mean we're playing God? I can't. I haven't read any compelling reason not to greatly disc decrease the mosquito population, have you?

D (20:33)

No, not at all. But the way that they've been proposing doing it, which is swapping out part of their genetic code, you know, you would worry that perhaps it could drift into more beneficial insects or someone else.

C (20:47)

Yeah, more beneficial insects. Which is to say, I think every other insect between. Between that and eliminating pregnant women consumption of bananas. We're going to lick this thing.

D (20:57)

Scientists figured out so that when mosquitoes specialize. The mosquitoes that specialize in human blood sucking, they did it when we started storing water in Africa.

C (21:10)

Oh, so it's our fault. That's when we started playing God by storing water and not just walking up to streams and getting on our knees and lapping it up like a deer. Or I guess if we're in Africa, a dik Dick.

D (21:22)

Yeah, it was the clay pots and things that we started using to store water. And so first the mosquitoes adapted to breeding in these little pools of water, and then they developed a taste for human blood.

C (21:36)

It's all our fault. Sadie Dingfelder is the author of Do I Know you? A Face Blind Reporter's Journey into the Science of Sight, Memory, Imagination, and now Mosquitoes. She comes by very often to play Is that bullshit with us? Sadie? Thank you so much.

D (21:52)

So welcome. Thank.

C (22:02)

You. And now the spiel. Tom Homan took a $50,000 bribe and we're all left holding the bag. So the reporting, first by MSNBC and matched by the New York Times and others, is that border czar Tom Homan took a bribe. $50,000 in cash in a bag. On the gist list, we tracked down what type of bag it was. Was it a good Adidas gym bag or a cloth sack bag with a dollar sign? No, it's highlighter yellow. A bag from a fast casual chain named Kava that is known for their black lentils and basmati saffron rice as a base grain. So Tom Homan took a bribe, just took a bribe. Now I do have to say all the disclaimers and they're warranted. Maybe MSNBC or the New York Times got something wrong or left something out. Or maybe any other administration, one run by Biden at John F. Kennedy or Ulysses S. Grant who was president when the DOJ was first created, maybe they too would have dismissed the charges. The charges weren't warranted. The charges didn't get their charges that Tom Homan took a brat, just took a bribe. But it seems that the charges were dismissed because Trump wasn't interested in arresting his border czar because he took a bribe. In the history of government, the easiest, simplest thing is something like, well, if you take a bribe, you can't do government. It's either government or bribes. Bribes with government is not really government, is it? We can debate what is a bribe the Supreme Court does. You're allowed to do favors, you're allowed to give a gift. Campaign contributions are not just legal, without them you wouldn't get elected. And then there is the category of the legal bribe or what the clever guys get to say, oh, it is a bribe, even if it's all out in the open. But I want you to think about this. All of the workarounds to get a bribe called or consider something other than a bribe, they are work arounds, they require work effort is put in to change the listener or citizen's mind or the law's mind or the judge that you eventually get to his or her mind. But not in this case. Homan just took a bribe and then someone higher up said that don't care. And that part the higher up making it go away, that too has been a staple of governments and the reporting about governance, if that's uncovered, that there is a bribe down there and then a cover up up up there. If you uncover the COVID up, that's usually an even bigger scandal. It could go all the way to the top, right? If one guy takes a bribe and the other makes it go away, it usually is bad for the guy who made it go away. But also making it go away takes a lot of work, a lot more work than the guy who makes it go away. Just saying not didn't take a bribe, but not in this case. That's all that seems to have happened. I want to know when MSNBC first reported it and the Times was right there. And then Reuters and others, when they first put it out there and the public first knew about it, did the people in the border czar press team, did they panic even a little bit? Did they pull all nighters? Did they say, oh, no, here we go. Did someone on the Trump home in probably US Taxpayer payroll say, oh, this one's bad, put on a pot of coffee, we're going to have to work out the messaging here. Did they worry or did after the first three minutes of rush phone calls and assembling the principals and coffee brewing, did the conversation go like this? Okay, they got him holding the bag. $50,000 in cash. What's our angle? All right, how about this? Let me throw this out. Just say, yeah, no, he didn't. Well, it's a good idea. All right, let's call it a night. It's coffee. Done. I'll take mine to go. The really bad thing isn't that Homan took a bribe or that the charges went away after Homan died, took a bribe or that no one in the Trump aligned part of government thinks or admits or will entertain the notion that Homan really did take a bribe. No, it's that they didn't care that anyone else cared. I don't think. I don't see any evidence of them sweating this one out or considering it a scandal. I'm not even talking about shame. I'm just talking about are they burning calories on the COVID up? I'd like to think they were. And by the way, if you are anyone who does or wants to do business with the government at this point, you'd be crazy. You'd be not doing your job right. If you don't get your contact to at least consider taking a bribe, you've got to at least offer the bribe. It would pretty much be malpractice not to put the bribe on the table and in a yellow bag. Now watch. Someone will take my advice and they'll try to bribe Cash Patel or RFK Jr. And it'll be the exact day that Trump's patience just runs out from those guys and then he'll be arrested and maybe cash will be charged and you'll come back to me and you said, oh, it's time to offer a bribe. You just got to, you know, you got to see which way the wind's blowing is my only advice. But my big advice, just based on everything I say is get them to take a bribe. There's really no downside to take a bribe. And that's where we stand right now. Tom Homan took a bribe, but really he didn't. Also, if you look at all the reporting, he didn't give back the money, did he? So he literally kept the bribe because a bribe, however, think about it this way, kept a bribe. Now, a bribe is technically an unlawful act, and the forces who decide on what is law, if they decide it's not unlawful, then it's not a bribe. So this whole time I've been saying Tom Homan took a bribe. I guess if they decree it not a bribe, we could say Tom Homan didn't take a bribe. That was just some extra lettuce in his bright yellow kava bag to blend in nicely with the honey chicken crazy feta hummus and the harissa vinaigrette. And that's it for today's show. Cory Wara produces the Gist. Ashley Kahn's our production coordinator, Jeff Craig, one of the few trustworthy guys with two first names. You know that category of suspicious fellow. Jeff Craig runs our social. Kathleen Sykes writes the Gist list with me. You know, you could text Mike to 33777, get a great discount on the gist list, which goes paid on Thursday, Friday. And Michelle Pesca, she put all of these plans into place. In fact, she's running the hand crank on that 33777 mic number. G. Peru Duparu thanks for listening.

A (28:47)

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