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Wednesday, August 12, 2020

DO YOU NEED A MOSQUITO TRAP?

From Worldometer,  COVID-19 new deaths:

           DAY USA   WORLD   Brazil      India   South Africa
June      9     1093    4732        1185      246         82
July       1       676    4857        1057      438         92
             5       251    3572          535       421       173
             7       993    5504        1312       479       192
           12       380    4118          659       500       108
           14       935    5414        1341       586       174
           15     1001    5760        1261       614       107
           19       412    4606          715       675         85
           21     1119    5669        1346       671        195
           22     1205    7128        1293     1120        572
           26       450    4307         556       715        114
           28    1266     5589         955       776        190
           30    1485     7023       1544       779        240
           31    1465     6418       1189       783        315
Aug      1    1462     6429       1191       765        193
            2     1123     5601       1048       852        148
            3       467     4430         514       514        213
            4       567     4366         572       810        173
            5     1362     6292       1394       849        345
            6     1311     6832       1322       919        414
            7     1203     6452       1226       899        306
            8     1250     6448       1058       940        305
            9       976     5612         841       875        301
          10       534     4813         593     1013        198
          11       569     4575         721       887        213
          12     1504     6556       1242       835        130

Summary:
  • Hawaii, because of our isolation, was the most successful state to fend off COVID-19
    • From April 19 to June 11 Hawaii experienced only single-digit new cases each day.  
    • From August 3 through yesterday, we have had a consistent string of triple-digit new cases/day.
    • And schools have not yet opened.
    • The blame seems to be placed on citizens who party or congregate without masks.
    • However, there are fundamental faults:
      • First we test less than any other state.
      • Second, our contact tracing is abominable.
      • On the other hand, with all those asymptomatic cases, there is no way to succeed in contact tracing without universal testing.
      • The combination of the two is clearly why we got this jump and the world continues to be in trouble.
      • The fundamental flaw, and you can target President Donald Trump as being singularly responsible, is that insufficient testing kits remain a problem in the whole nation.
  • Remember those tortuous days when New York was suffering from this coronavirus?  Well, they just put Hawaii on the do not come to New York list.
  • Hawaii, the U.S. and World await the coming of universal testing and an effective vaccine.  Both are many months away (unless you're into professional sports or work in the White House), and that is an optimistic estimate.
 New York Times in their Daily Brief this morning:
  • A Georgia school district returned to the classroom last week. Already, more than 900 students and faculty members have been ordered into quarantine.

  • On Tuesday, Russia became the first country to announce it had approved a coronavirus vaccine. But with no evidence from large-scale clinical trials or published data from earlier trials, the claim received international skepticism.


    Lives Lived: The singer and guitarist Trini Lopez punctuated many of his songs with joyous hoots and trills drawn from Mexican folk music, emphasizing his heritage at a time when many Latin performers kept theirs hidden. “I’m proud to be a Mexicano,” he said. He died of Covid-19 at 83.  His If I had a Hammer remains one of my very favorites.
On the medical front, two pieces of good news.  First, there appears to be developing a one-shot vaccine for heart disease.  This is the highest cause of deaths in the world.  Still a ways to go, as medical researchers remain at the monkey inoculation stage.





Second, not a cure nor a treatment, but a start:

Scientists published a report on a new blood test that has the potential to make diagnosing Alzheimer's disease simpler, more affordable and widely accessible.

On the political front, Kamala Harris only relatively recently, in 2014, married Douglas Emhoff, an entertainment attorney.  Unfortunately, she does not come from a battleground state.  However, as the Senate is a target for take-over on November 3, her replacement would win with ease in California where Republicans have seriously declined.  Her replacement in the Senate if Biden beats Trump?  Here is a possible priority list:
  • Rep. Karen Bass, African-American and female.
  • San Francisco Mayor London Breed, same (right).
  • Attorney General Xavier Becerra, 62-year old, son of Mexican immigrants, and is a thorn in the side of President Trump, having filed five dozen lawsuits against the White House.
  • Secretary of State Alex Padilla, Hispanic, 47-year old, who would gain seniority with time.
  • Rep. Adam Schiff, yes, that same Schiff you saw in the impeachment hearings, who is 60-years old.
  • Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti, 49-year old and part Mexican, Italian and Jewish.
  • Willie Brown, former San Francisco mayor, and, while 86 years old, walks 10 miles/day, who got Governor Gavin Newsome going.  Maybe he deserves this role for two years.  Then again, he supposedly had an affair with Kamala Harris 20 years ago.  While that article came from Creators Syndicate, linked to the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank, there is little doubt that the Brown-Harris relationship was more than just political.
So on to my scientific topic of the day, perhaps next to the cockroach, mosquitos are my bane.  I will reveal to you the modern way to get rid of them in your home and yard.

To begin, each year there are nearly 150 million births and 60 million deaths.  This is the usual graphic you see about the top ten causes of deaths:

On closer analysis, 20 million deaths are from viral/bacterial infections, like COVID-19.  Note that the globe is not even close to a million coronavirus casualties during this pandemic.  While mosquitos and other small pests wipe out more humans than larger animals, the actual killer is a microorganism, usually a parasite, virus or bacterium.  To summarize:


In the U.S. you have a one in nearly 4 million chance of being killed by a shark.  Worldwide, we kill 100 million sharks/year.

But back to mosquitos, I live in a seniors' community building with 200 others.  15 Craigside is fully air-conditioned.  I appear to be the only one with a mosquito problem.  I think the venting system allows these flying creature into my room.  Why only me?  Don't know.

I do have three aquaria, but my fish eat mosquitos.  I have an indoor watering system that sometimes has some water on the bottom, but that can't be where they breed because these regularly dry up.  I have a lanai where my plants also has this water accumulation.  However, I haven't seem even one mosquito while eating out there.  Not one.  In six years.

Then it occurred to me, I wonder if there are mosquito traps, like Hoy Hoy Trap a Roach, which in my previous apartment caught a thousand large ones over the 32-year period I lived in my penthouse.  

So I went searching for an equivalent mosquito trap and did not expect the solution to be electronic. Found a useful blog site--Mosquito World--that rated them.  They cost from $20 to more than $200, with the more expensive ones for outdoor use.  To summarize:
  • When hunting for blood meals, the female mosquito flies only to a height of 25 or less from the ground.  Thus, my theory that my mosquitos must be coming from the vent, as I keep all windows and doors closed anyway.
  • Mosquitos detect carbon dioxide from breathing person, plus more than 340 chemical odors produced by your skin.  Octenol from perspiration is an attractant.
  • Have light sensitive eyes.
  • The head is sensitive to heat.
  • Thus mosquito traps used light, carbon dioxide and other smells.
  • Traps need to be placed in a shaded area.
These are the major brands mentioned:
  • Koolatron from Canads makes four kinds of traps.  These I ignored because they burn propane to produce carbon dioxide.  Mostly for outdoor use anyway.
  • Mega-Catch also has four varieties, some use carbon dioxide, plus attractants, light and infrared heat.
  • Mosquito Magnet also has four types, but they burn propane, so deleted this.
  • Dragonfly II is programmable with eight operating modes using all the options.
  • Skeetervac is for outdoor use.
  • Forget Coleman Mosquito Deleto, for their propane burner was a fire hazard.
Turned out I didn't need those complicated devices, for I only have two rooms.  So I went to a site that rated the best for 2020:
  • #1  Buzz B-Gone:  Lamp and light sensor.  Ultra quiet.  No radiation nor smell.
  • MoskiX Band:  Chemical free and nonintrusive.
  • Mosquitron:  Small size.
  • Bye Insect Bracelet.  
Went to Amazon.com and couldn't find any of them.  At random I picked Oriflame Electric Mosquito Killer Lamp with USB Power and SENCA  Electric Indoor Mosquito Trap.  They were both around $25, with free delivery.  One came in a couple of days, the other a week.

I placed one near my indoor plants and the second in the bathroom.  It's been a few weeks and no mosquitos.

I learned that one of the finest person I ever worked with, Michael Cruickshank, at the age of 91, just passed away.  He was born in Glasgow, Scotland and became one of the two world authorities on deep seabed mining.  He was key in the University of Hawaii being selected by the Department of Interior as the National Center for Marine Minerals and Technology with the University of Mississippi.  Few, if anyone else knew this, but he was the person who, working with Patrick McGarey, legislative director of Congressman Dan Akaka, identified the original source of funding for the Pacific Ocean Resources and Technology Building, where I still have my Manoa Campus Office.  The field and world in general will miss Mike.


Category 2 Hurricane Elida is churning in the East Pacific as a Category 2 at 100 MPH.  However, the projected track will keep it far east of Hawaii.  There could be landfall over Mexico:

In the Atlantic, there is a tropical depression that could become Hurricane Josephine, the subject of my blog in a few days, not the storm, but Josephine Baker.


Here is something you've probably never seen, Frank Sinatra and Elvis Presley in a duet.


Here is a list of a friend's favorite songs:

Sweet Lorraine by Nat King Cole trio 

Give the Simple Life by Jean Frye Sidwell with Harry Ruby & Rube Bloom Quartet 
Here are some contemporary Jazz music I enjoy listening to:

Spyro Gyra doing Morning Dance

Rise by Herb Alpert 

Feel so Good by Chuck Mangione

A Day in the Life by Wes Montgomery

Ah, how can I leave out Dave Brubeck from this line of Jazz music, huh?
Take Five 

Blue Rondo a la Turk

Here are some Instrumentals that are timeless and are alway enjoyable 
to listen too:

Beguin the Beguine by Artie Shaw 

Hooked on Swing
Theme from the Summer Place by Percy Faith

...and my all time favorite instrumental,
Stranger on the Shore by Acker Bilk

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