Playing online casino Malaysia through Alibaba33 online casino Malaysia can be a fun and rewarding experience for those who enjoy playing games for fun. trusted online casino malaysia alibaba33Bet on your favourite slots, live, sporting events and win big! If you enjoy sports, slots like Mega888 ewallet Alibaba33 online casino Malaysia has something for you.

Viagra Malaysia treat erectile dysfunction with the original ED treatment that has helped men feel confident in bed for decades. We’ll connect you with a licensed viagra malaysia healthcare provider to evaluate if our prescription ED treatments could be right for you, including super-affordable generic Viagra viagramalaysiaofficial Viagra is an oral ED medication that works by suppressing an enzyme in the body called PDE5.

Tag: Mosquitoes - Organic Lifestyle Magazine Tag: Mosquitoes - Organic Lifestyle Magazine

Oxitec Releases First Genetically Modified Mosquitoes in the U.S

Oxitec, the biotech firm released the first round of genetically modified mosquitoes at the end of April. This is the first time in the U.S that genetically modified mosquitoes have been released.

Previously the modified Aedes aegypti modified mosquitoes have been released in Brazil, the Cayman Islands, Panama, and Malaysia. A. aegypti mosquito populations were said to drop by at least 90% in those locations. In the U.S, the mosquitoes were released in the Florida Keys.

A aegypti mosquitoes carry diseases like Zika and yellow fever. The genetically modified mosquitoes are all male and are engineered with a lethal gene that is passed on to offspring when the genetically modified mosquitoes mate with females. The lethal gene prevents female mosquitoes from developing an essential protein and causes them to die before reaching maturity. Only female mosquitoes bite people, as males exclusively drink nectar.

Recommended: How to Eliminate IBS, IBD, Leaky Gut 

The company will capture mosquitoes throughout the trial to observe how far the insects travel from their boxes, how long they live and whether female mosquitoes are actually picking up the lethal gene and dying off. To make it easier to track the modified mosquitoes, Oxitec introduced a gene that causes the mosquitoes to glow under a specific color of light.

The First Genetically Modified Mosquitoes Have Just Been Released in The US

Releasing genetically modified mosquitoes is suppose to serve as an alternative to spraying with pesticides to control the population. Currently, the Florida Keys Mosquito Control District budgets a million dollars a year to control the mosquitoes by spraying aerial insecticides.




Oxitec Plans To Release Millions of Gene Hacked Mosquitoes In Texas and Florida

Oxitec, a biotech company, has made plans to release millions of genetically modified mosquitoes in both Florida and Texas in an attempt to stop the spread of diseases like Zika and dengue. This has already been approved by the EPA, but a group of biologists, ecologists, bioethicists, and sustainability researchers has concerns about the effect these mosquitos could have on the surrounding ecosystems.

In theory, releasing gene-hacked mosquitoes into the wild is a valid way to kill off or reduce local populations: by engineering sterile breeds of the insect, scientists can drastically reduce the number of bugs born in the next generation. The concept has worked in a laboratory setting. But when officials in Brazil tried it for real, the plan reportedly backfired spectacularly — giving rise to super-resilient genetic hybrids.

SCIENTISTS FIGHT PLAN TO RELEASE GENE-HACKED MOSQUITOES IN TX, FL

Scientists who have raised concerns are worried the EPA has not imposed strong enough measures to monitor the experiment and prevent damage to the ecosystem. Scientists wrote “Genetic engineering offers an unprecedented opportunity for humans to reshape the fundamental structure of the biological world,” However, they pointed out than much of our ecosystems remain understudied and extremely complex.

Recommended: Total Nutrition – Make your own Homemade Multivitamin and Mineral Formula



How to Deal with Mosquitoes Naturally

It’s mosquito season again here in North America. All too often, this is the time when many people rely on pesticides for their yards or they use synthetic insect repellents. Many of us are under the false impression that this is the heavy-duty approach, and everything else is “not hardcore enough.”

There are numerous downsides to outdoor pesticide treatments and synthetic insect repellents. Pesticides create insecticide resistant bugs. The active ingredient in most commercial bug repellents is DEET, a dangerous chemical. DEET has been linked to neurological damage, cancer, and environmental damage. Chemicals are also less effective than natural methods. In addition, natural methods are cheaper and pose little to no health risk.

A Wealth of Options

There are many natural methods for mosquito control. You can grow the right kind of plants in your yard, and mosquitoes will leave you alone. You can make some changes to your diet to make yourself far less appealing to mosquitoes. Another tried and proven tactic is to create bird, bat, or frog habitats, which work well to keep mosquitoes and other bug populations down. Finally, you can use essential oils, the ultimate non-toxic, all-natural mosquito repellent to keep the dastardly bloodsuckers away.

Take Away The Mosquito Habitats

You also don’t want to make it easy for mosquitoes to reproduce. Remove anything that collects and pools stagnant water- that’s where they lay their eggs. Tires, buckets, pet bowls, birdbaths, gutters, and the like are potential breeding pools for mosquitoes. Eliminating these breeding spots is an essential step if you wish to be taken off the menu.

The easiest solution, and my favorite, is to use your green thumb against mosquitoes. All you need to do is grow the right plants. There are several dozen tested and proven plants that repel mosquitoes, and many are beautiful and easy to grow. You can use flowers such as marigolds (see further reading below), and ageratums (also known as floss flowers). Or you could use plants such as catnip, lavender, mint, or citronella. There are so many plants that repel mosquitoes.

There are many essential oils that repel mosquitoes and other biting insects. To avoid being bitten by mosquitoes and other pests including ticks, biting flies, and midges, you’ll need a combination of essential oils for complete protection. The following essential oils repel mosquitoes:

Remember to try a little essential oil on your skin to test for an allergic reaction before you apply the oil more generously. Don’t use essential oils straight out of the bottle. You need to either dilute them with water, or better yet, you can mix a few drops of essential oils with coconut oil as a carrier, which also doubles as a sunblock. Coconut oil is also good for the skin.

It’s the Female Mosquitoes You Need To Look Out For

We call it biting, but being bitten by a mosquito more closely resembles a miniature needle jab. The bloodsucking tube of the female mosquito looks rigid; however, it is actually a very complex flexible organ that bends at right angles in order to find a good source of blood.

A mosquito’s needle-like hollow probe tapers to a point. The labrum is the flat strip that collapses as the mosquito pushes into the skin. This well-evolved feeding tube is finer than a human hair. From inside the tube, four tiny cutting filaments, known as mandibles maxillae, dig their way into the skin. The mosquito pushes in with these four filaments to drive the other mouthparts deeper.

These biting parts are only found on female mosquitoes. While, both the male and the female mosquito feed on plant nectar, only the female feeds on blood. The rich amounts of protein and iron in blood aids them in producing their eggs.

A Short Lifespan

All mosquitoes live a short life, but the females live quite a bit longer than the males with a typical lifespan could be 6 to 8 weeks. The male’s main purpose in life is to find the females and mate with them. Longevity is not needed for this endeavor. Once they have grown to an adult, males rarely last more than 2 weeks.

Some female mosquitoes can lay up to 300 eggs at a time, some lay less than a hundred. Most lay their eggs in water or very close to the water. The eggs quickly mature in water.

Mosquito eggs grow in stages, the four stages that are typical of many insect species: egg, larvae, pupae, and adult. Larvae and pupae mosquitoes need water in order to survive.

They Come in Many Sizes

Mosquitoes vary in size from 1.6 mm to 12.5 mm (up to 1/2 an inch). Half an inch doesn’t sound very big, but the big ones are 20 times the size of normal mosquitoes. The super-sized mosquitoes are known as gallinippers. Gallinippers can bite through clothing.

And in Many Different Species, Too

There are more than 3,500 different species of mosquitoes in the world, and about 200 of them are in North America. Many mosquitoes bite whenever the opportunity presents itself, but some are more choosey about their targets.

Some mosquitoes are very specialized – humans are not the meal they choose. Others, of course, are our biggest fans. Aedes aegypti feed on human blood almost exclusively. As the name implies, aedes aegypti originated in North Africa, but they, like others, have spread across the world. There are only a few safe havens like Iceland and Antarctica.

They Know What They Like

Mosquitoes are attracted to body heat, dark clothing, perfume, cologne, hairsprays, cosmetics, and natural body odors. Our skin can create over 340 different chemical odors, and these smells can be unappealing or appealing to mosquitoes. These are some of the reasons that mosquitoes like some of us more than others, but there are other reasons as well.

We have over a trillion microbes living on our skin. When scientists compare microbes from person to person, there is a great deal of variation. Mosquitoes are attracted to some kinds of bacteria while other kinds mask our scent. As chance would have it, some kinds are downright unappealing to them.

Our diet is the biggest factor influencing our microbial makeup, but there are other factors like how much we sweat, what kind of soap we use, how much we exercise, the last time we bathed, and of course, genetics are a big factor as well.

Predators and parasites both prefer their prey to be in less than optimal health. When we are in optimal health, our bodies are teeming with beneficial bacteria, killer white T-cells, and all of our other natural defenses. Diet plays a huge role in both health and micro-bio diversity.The microbes on our skin reflect the microbes in our gut. Mosquitoes like sugary blood and perfumes. If you are attracting mosquitoes and you aren’t wearing perfumes, you are probably eating too much sugar, and it is time to balance your gut flora. You might find it surprising how much less they’ll like you if you’re eating a truly healthy diet (see further reading below). It’s helpful to know mosquitoes don’t like garlic, onions, leeks, and vinegar. If you eat a healthy diet and enough of these foods, mosquitoes will like you a lot less.

Itchy, Painful Bites are Not the Worst-Case-Scenario

It’s a good idea to avoid mosquitoes and mosquito bites. Mosquitoes inject their prey with an anti-inflammatory and an anti-coagulate to make it easier to suck blood. Usually this bug spit that gets injected in the bite area just causes some mild irritation. In rare cases, people have severe adverse reactions. Symptoms of a mosquito allergy include:

  • Increased swelling at bite
  • Fever
  • Hives
  • Swollen lymph nodes
  • Headache

This type of physical reaction is more commonly seen in children and is sometimes referred to as skeeter syndrome. Unfortunately, even this kind of reaction is still not the worst-case scenario for mosquito bites.

Mosquitoes are vectors of numerous diseases:

  • Chikungunya
  • West nile virus
  • Filariasis
  • Encephalitis
  • Malaria
  • Rift valley fever
  • Yellow fever
  • Dengue fever

Malaria is the most infamous disease listed. Roughly 200 million people contract malaria every year and the disease kills over a million people a year.

Genetically Modified Mosquitoes

The biotech industry has turned to genetically modified mosquitoes as a means to reduce mosquito populations. They release genetically modified males that have been modified to be sterile. They are released in close enough proximity to where mosquitoes are found, so the males can seek out the females. Unsurprisingly, the males are really, really good at finding the females. GMO mosquitoes mate with the females, which denies them the opportunity to mate with fertile males.

GMO mosquitoes have been released in Brazil, Malaysia, and Florida. The male mosquitoes seek out the female mosquitoes and they impregnate them with doomed offspring. In a generation, large numbers of aedes egypti mosquitoes die off.

Of course, this is the ideal circumstance, a best case scenario. Only male genetically modified mosquitoes are supposed to be released. We don’t know what would happen if female GMO mosquitoes were to get free. People could be bitten by GMO mosquitoes, which would leave GMO proteins in their body. What if some of the genetically modified males malfunction and don’t work as they’re supposed to and they somehow produce viable offspring? The changes they could make to the population are impossible to predict. Though the first trials appear to be successful, it is a dire risk to manipulate the genes of any organism and then release it into the environment. We may not understand enough about genetics to be doing these kinds of manipulations to species and then releasing them, just hoping for the best. Many critics of this technology argue this approach is unrealistically optimistic.

Conclusion

Mosquitoes have been with us a long time, even before there was an “us”. Way before human beings or primates evolved, mosquitoes were doing their thing.

Fossil evidence puts mosquitos all the way back to the Jurassic period. Amazingly, the little buggers harassed the dinosaurs, too. Back then mosquitoes came a bit larger, up to 2 inches in size.

We hope you take the extra time to make it more difficult for mosquitoes to make a meal out of you or your friends and family. One of the best end results of repelling mosquitoes is the knowledge that you’re doing your part to reduce their population the natural way, by starving them out of the blood they need to reproduce. Donating blood should be reserved for fellow people in need, not these vile pests.

Recommended Products:

Further Reading: 

Sources:




Repel Mosquitoes by Cultivating Marigolds

Marigolds are beautiful, strong smelling herbaceous flowers that are widely grown throughout the world. Most people grow marigolds for their season-long blooms, their beautiful scent, and because they are easy to grow. There are other great reasons to grow marigolds. The flowers are all edible though some taste better than others, and if you grow them from seed, they’re beneficial for pollinators such as bees and butterflies. However, the best characteristic of marigolds is that they repel mosquitoes. This makes for an affordable and environmentally friendly alternative to chemical insecticides. Insecticides are horrible for the environment, and they cause more harm to frogs and birds, mosquitoes’ main predators than they do to the mosquitoes. In the long run, this makes the mosquito problem much worse.

Marigolds Are Kryptonite to Mosquitoes

Unfortunately, mosquitoes are more than a nuisance; they are vectors for numerous diseases. For instance, malaria kills over a million people a year, and though the disease is currently not endemic to the U.S., many argue that it is only a matter of time before it becomes common in the U.S. again. Mosquitoes also spread encephalitis, West Nile virus, dengue fever and more. Instead of spending your hard earned money on chemical treatments that add to the mosquito population, in the long run, plant marigolds and other mosquito repelling plants in your yard for an immediate and cost effective solution.

More About These Remarkable Flowers

Marigolds are plants of the genus Tagetes, belonging to the family Asteraceae or Aster family. Though they are now found all over the world, botanists believe South America to be their most likely place of origin. This belief is rooted in evidence from fossils found in Argentina that date back 50 million years. Paleobotanists have discovered Asteraceae fossils that date to the Eocene Epoch (56 million to 33.9 million years ago). The plant family is from South America, and the marigold is believed to be a native of Mexico.

The name marigold is possibly derived from the Anglo-Saxon term for the flower: merso-meargealla. There are other competing claims that the name comes from the Virgin Mary, with the gold referring to the most common color of marigolds. Old English authors referred to the flower simply as golde.

Long-lasting blooms

Marigolds are beautiful flowers that bloom all season until first frost. They will bloom more profusely if you remove the dead flowers from the plant. Marigolds rarely have problems with pests. They have only a few natural enemies; of these, the most common are frost, slugs, and snails.

You can grow big marigolds, small marigolds, marigolds of many colors, even edible marigolds. The varieties of marigolds are endless.

A Wealth of Options

There are two types of marigolds that are well known and widely cultivated. These are French marigolds and African marigolds.

African marigolds are the larger of the two. African marigolds, Tagetes erecta, typically have large yellow to orange flowers that can measure as large as 5 inches across, with plant height varying an average of 10 to 36 inches tall. African marigolds are sometimes referred to as American marigolds. (There are quite a few names for these flowers).

French marigolds are bushier and display smaller blooms. Typically, French marigolds will grow up to 2 inches across and come in a wider variety of colors: yellow, reds, orange, or multi-colored such as the harlequin French marigold with its yellow and red striped flowers.

There are other varieties of marigolds less commonly known. Such as triploid hybrids, signet marigolds, or the flavorful calendula marigolds (only the flowers are edible). Your options with marigolds are legion. Plant what you want; marigolds basically grow themselves, with almost no work on your part. Even if you believe yourself to be botanically inept, when it comes to marigolds, I believe anyone can grow them successfully.

You could buy these flowers from a store to transplant, but this is not the best way to go. Store bought flowers often have neonicotinoids applied to them at levels high enough to prove fatal to bees. You and the bees are better off if you’re growing your own.

Marigolds are easy to grow; so easy in fact, that anyone can do it. You don’t need great soil, just your run of the mill dirt, which is easy to come by. And you don’t need to fertilize them or fuss over them. All they need is some soft ground, direct sunshine, and some water.

A One-Time Seed Purchase

Once you have decided on what variety of marigold you want to grow, you’ll only need to purchase seed once. The seeds are easy to save. After you cut the dead blooms off of your flowers a few times, you’ll have all the seed you’ll ever need.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uKDgyM-w7u4

Getting Dirty

The next step is less work than it sounds. You’ll need to loosen up the ground where you plan on planting your flowers. (Don’t forget about your underground utility lines, if you don’t already have your utilities marked, call 811 and get them flagged before you start digging). You can use any kind of hand tool for this, a hand tiller, shovel, etc. Once you have chosen the sites where you would like to grow your flowers (spread them out in multiple places across the yard), space the seeds apart according to your seed packet instructions. Alternately, you could grow the flowers in planters first, but this isn’t a necessary step. In the case of marigolds, I think it just creates more work in the long run. Your seed packet will tell you how deep to plant the seeds, but basically, you just barely cover them with dirt. Don’t let them dry out. While the plants are young, water them often, whenever the ground is dry. Don’t smack the plants with water from on high; be gentle with your watering and aim for the base of your plants. Blooms should appear within a few weeks, and they will stay in bloom all season.

They Don’t Ask For Much

Don’t fertilize marigolds. They bloom better and more profusely in poor soil. If you fertilize them, they will bloom less, and grow excess greenery. If you don’t fertilize your marigolds and they still turn out bushy with few blooms, then congratulations! These bushy marigolds should still repel mosquitoes, but this means you’ve got great soil in your yard; black gold if you will. This is a sign that you should grow something that is more of a challenge to grow than marigolds, like food, or more exotic decorative plants that still repel pests.

An optional extra step is to mulch the flowerbed once your flowers begin to pop out of the ground. Mulching a flowerbed makes it look more attractive and it conserves water. But you can get by without the mulch, especially when you’re dealing with marigolds.

By growing these flowers in your yard, you can be assured that the mosquitos will leave you alone and you’ll be helping out your local bees, too. They need all the help they can get. Sadly, it’s not easy being a bee these days. Bees are relatively fragile when it comes to pesticide exposure. If you’re helping out bees, you should feel good about it. They play a crucial role in the ecosystem. They are so important that biologists often refer to them as a keystone species. So by helping them out, you can feel like you’re doing the planet a favor.

Other Mosquito Repelling Options

Marigolds are probably the easiest to grow, but if you want to plant a variety of plants that repel mosquitoes, consider some of the following:

  • Ageratum
  • Asters
  • Basil
  • Bee balm
  • Beauty Berry
  • Cadaga tree
  • Catmint
  • Catnip
  • Cedars
  • Mosquitoes Comic
    From http://taskandtoil.com

    Citronella Grass

  • Chrysanthemums
  • Clove
  • Eucalyptus
  • Garlic
  • Geranium (repels ticks)
  • Horsemint
  • Lavender (also repels ticks, moths, mice, black flies and fleas)
  • Lemon Balm
  • Lemon Grass (repels ticks)
  • Lemon Thyme
  • Lemon Verbena
  • Mint
  • Nodding Onion
  • Peppermint
  • Penny Royal
  • Pineapple weed
  • Pitcher Plant
  • Pyrethrum daisies
  • Rosemary
  • Stone root
  • Snowbrush
  • Sweet Fern
  • Tansy
  • Tea Tree
  • Vanilla Leaf
  • Vetiver Grass
  • Wild Bergamot
  • Wormwood

When purchasing seeds, you’ll probably get a much better deal ordering from a catalog or an online seed company than you would from your local retail store. In our garden we’ve come to rely on Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds. They have over a dozen varieties of marigolds to choose from.

Conclusion

Even if you struggle to grow plants and have had limited prior success, you can grow marigolds, no matter how many plants have perished under your care. Please let us know how your marigold cultivation turns out!

Recommended Reading:
Sources: