I would argue that the real apex predator on earth is the mosquito. They are the number one animal kingdom killers of humans on the planet. They kill approximately 1 million humans each and every year. What human doesn’t have an almost instinctual hatred of these insects?
As the apex predator, mosquitoes even choose the time of day for the hunt. Suppertime for a mosquito is dusk. This is the time that they are all around hoping to feed on its human prey. If you haven’t felt hunted and attacked at dusk in a park or even a wilder domain, then you probably don’t even go outside in the summer.
If a mosquito bites you at any other time, it is just considered a snack for them.
But we have some defense against this apex predator, Deet is the active ingredient in mosquito repellents, that keeps most mosquitoes away. What power does Deet have over mosquitoes anyway?
If we look back to the beginnings of Deet we may find the answer. Early Deet ads always showed a human’s arm first getting sprayed, then being put in a chamber with 10 000 hungry mosquitoes. The 10 000 hungry mosquitoes would fly elsewhere in the chamber and stay away from the Deet sprayed arm.
But, were the scientists being unethical and providing the mosquitoes with enough food (human blood) to keep them alive? I put out feelers in the scientific community and this is what I was told.
They manage to keep the mosquitoes alive by putting human scent on beans. The hungry mosquito then lands on the bean and feasts on the innards.
Then (and this is key) the fed mosquitoes are put in a separate chamber where they fart and fart and fart. When the mosquitoes are done feasting and farting, They are separated from the fart chamber. This is easy to do because all mosquitoes hate farts that are not their own.
The chamber with the farts is compressed into cans for spray on Deet. That is the main ingredient in Deet. Mosquitoes won’t feed near Deet because, you know, it’s gross.
Sometimes a mosquito gets lucky and just smells its own fart in the Deet. This is why Deet isn’t quite 100% perfect and you could still get bitten.
