The Mosquito: A Human History of Our Deadliest Predator

by Timothy C. Winegard Narrated by Mark Deakins

Overview

**The instant New York Times bestseller.**
*An international bestseller.*

Finalist for the Lane Anderson Award

Finalist for the RBC Taylor Award

“Hugely impressive, a major work.”-NPR

A pioneering and groundbreaking work of narrative nonfiction that offers a dramatic new perspective on the history of humankind, showing how through millennia, the mosquito has been the single most powerful force in determining humanity's fate
*
Why was gin and tonic the cocktail of choice for British colonists in India and Africa? What does Starbucks have to thank for its global domination? What has protected the lives of popes for millennia?*Why did Scotland surrender its sovereignty to England? What was George Washington's secret weapon during the American Revolution?

The answer to all these questions, and many more, is the mosquito.
*
Across our planet since the dawn of humankind, this nefarious pest, roughly the size and weight of a grape seed, has been at the frontlines of history as the grim reaper, the harvester of human populations, and the ultimate agent of historical change. As the mosquito transformed the landscapes of civilization, humans were unwittingly required to respond to its piercing impact and universal projection of power.
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The mosquito has determined the fates of empires and nations, razed and crippled economies, and decided the outcome of pivotal wars, killing nearly half of humanity along the way. She (only females bite) has dispatched an estimated 52 billion people from a total of 108 billion throughout our relatively brief existence.*As the greatest purveyor of extermination we have ever known, she has played a greater role in shaping our human story than any other living thing with which we share our global village.
*
Imagine for a moment a world without deadly mosquitoes, or any mosquitoes, for that matter? Our history and the world we know, or think we know, would be completely unrecognizable.
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Driven by surprising insights and fast-paced storytelling, The Mosquito is the extraordinary untold story of the mosquito's reign through human history and her indelible impact on our modern world order.

Editorial Reviews

SEPTEMBER 2019 - AudioFile

Narrator Mark Deakins skillfully delivers this history of mosquitoes and their surprising effect on human civilization. Could mosquitoes have been the downfall of King Tut and the reason the Magna Carta was signed? Possibly, the author argues. Equally fascinating is the mosquito’s well-documented influence upon the ancient Greeks and major Western wars such as the American Revolution and the American Civil War. Deakins’s narration is sure to hold the listener’s attention despite some flaws found on the page. For instance, the author at times bogs things down with scientific jargon but then cheekily anthropomorphizes the mosquitoes as if they were characters in a story. But Deakins’s winning voice draws attention away from this inconsistent approach, much to the benefit of audiobook listeners. A.T.N. © AudioFile 2019, Portland, Maine

Publishers Weekly

06/03/2019

Winegard (The First World Oil War), a Colorado Mesa University history and political science professor, delivers an adequate, Western-centric world history focused on the part played by mosquitoes and mosquito-borne disease. He begins by introducing the Anopheles and Aedes species and the yellow fever and variants of malaria that they spread. Winegard then marches forward through history, highlighting events (generally wars) he sees as affected by the insects. When armies suffer enormous casualties due to disease, as they did in ancient Greece or colonial wars in the Caribbean, this connection is obvious and easily acceptable. Other connections are more tenuous, as when Winegard seems to give mosquitoes some credit for the Magna Carta. Further weak points include anthropomorphizing references to the subject which cast mosquitoes as mercenaries, generals, or allies in human conflicts, and occasional indulgence in alliteration (“a marshy morass and a minefield of malarial mosquitoes”). Winegard covers both major points, such as how 18th-century geopolitics were reshaped by the huge losses which malaria and yellow fever inflicted on European troops in the Americas, and trivia, such as Dr. Seuss’s anti-mosquito propaganda for WWII GIs. Despite some flaws, this works as a reasonable general introduction to one miniscule animal’s outsize effect on human history. Agent: Rick Broadhead, Rick Broadhead & Associates. (Aug.)

From the Publisher

**The International Bestseller**

Praise for The Mosquito

“Hugely impressive, a major work.”—NPR

“The Mosquito is an extremely well-researched work of narrative nonfiction... Timothy C. Winegard's The Mosquito is as wildly entertaining as any epic narrative out there. It's also all true…Winegard masterfully weaves historical facts and science to offer a shocking, informative narrative that shows how who we are today is directly linked to the mosquito.”—NPR.org

“Winegard’s reminder of their enormous potential for destruction is a timely one for all of us…we modern folk are also guilty of believing that our hopes and our technology will somehow make us exempt from the workings of the natural world. The entire time that humanity has been in existence, the mosquito has been proof that we are not.”—The New Yorker

“It’s not guns, germs and steel here — it’s all germs. The Mosquito is one of those (compound-) eye-opening books that permanently shift your worldview…Those who crave a deep dive into one world-shaking bug should grab The Mosquito.”—Sam Kean for the New York Times Book Review

“It’s an ambitious book that aims to deliver a tour of Western military history from antiquity to the jungles of Vietnam—and an account of how one tiny arthropod repeatedly molded that history, thwarting generals, sickening peasants and popes, and killing billions of people. Timothy C. Winegard has pulled off this feat in his enthusiastic if imperfect The Mosquito: A Human History of Our Deadliest Predator... Mr. Winegard presents a convincing argument for that assertion in 470 pages that will be illuminating for the reader coming fresh to mosquito-borne diseases.”—Wall Street Journal

“Thrilling… a lively history of mosquitoes. Mr. Winegard convincingly argues that the insect has shaped human life as well as delivering death… Mr. Winegard is an engaging guide, especially when he combines analysis with anecdote.”—The Economist

“Readers of non-fiction, history and science will enjoy Winegard's unique take on the ever-present pest. If you can't get away from mosquitoes in your backyard, then immerse yourself in this book and learn a new perspective on this seemingly insignificant part of summer.”—Associated Press

“Written as a big-picture, impersonal history—think Jared Diamond's Guns, Germs, and Steel...The Mosquito serves up an eye-opening, deeply alarming, and absolutely engrossing view of humanity’s most tenacious foe.”—Foreign Policy

“Fascinating... an entertainingly educational new opus... Winegard’s study marshals scientific facts and millennia of historical background about the droning pest we all encounter and which has killed nearly half of all human beings who’ve ever lived, profoundly altering our world along its bloodsucking way.”—USA Today

“Best books of the year so far: USA TODAY's best-reviewed titles of 2019.”—USA Today

"Magisterial"—Soutik Biswas, the India Correspondent and Features & Analysis Editor for BBC News 

“[The Mosquito] takes readers on a riveting adventure, documenting the mosquito’s outsized role in conflict since antiquity…Winegard’s earnest voice on this brings the seriousness of research and action on the mosquito up to the needed decibel.”—Nature

“A fascinating history of everyone’s least favorite insect.”—Lit Hub

“In what might be the bones of a good future horror movie, Timothy C. Winegard’s The Mosquito…goes deep into the history of that one particular bug... [The Mosquito] is a reminder that the human and insect worlds are interconnected and fragile…that we’re not the most important thing in the natural world.”—Outside.com

“The deeply researched book is packed with surprising historical facts and beautiful scientific writing."—Outside.com

"Book of the Week"—The Week 

“With the deeply researched Mosquito...he uses the bellicose insect to tie together a fascinating, sprawling history—from dinosaurs to the banned insecticide DDT.”—Literary Review of Canada

“Convincingly portrays the ignoble mosquito as a malignant force more influential in human affairs than the legendary Illuminati.”—Natural History Magazine 

“Certainly, history buffs and science lovers will enjoy this book but it’s also a heavier-duty, gee-whiz tale that’s totally absorbing. If you’re ready to learn, look for The Mosquito. You know the drill.”—The Quad-City Times

“Timothy Winegard’s entertaining new book, The Mosquito, chronicles the impact of mosquito-borne disease, principally malaria, throughout history. Readers of this book will no doubt enjoy Winegard’s rapid journey through many of humanity’s major population movements, campaigns, and wars.”—Science Magazine

“An epic analysis of the fiendish female insects.”—The Boulder Lifestyle Magazine

“A gripping book.”—The Los Angeles Times

“Fascinating...The Mosquito traces the defeat of armies, birth of nations, and shaping of culture all at the hand—or wings—of the mosquito.”—Garden&Gun 

“Heavily detailed (and witty).”—The Denver Post

"One of Fall 2019's Biggest Books...Winegard is a great storyteller who makes the icky fascinating."—The Philadelphia Inquirer

"The amount of knowledge that Winegard has provided is more than enough to be taken seriously, and he provides a detailed history of the world that was probably not focused on in history class."—San Francisco Book Review (five-star review)

"A combination of well-researched incredible scientific facts and enthusiastic, imaginative narrative, The Mosquito is a fascinating and important book, both educational and entertaining."—Ft. Myers Magazine

SEPTEMBER 2019 - AudioFile

Narrator Mark Deakins skillfully delivers this history of mosquitoes and their surprising effect on human civilization. Could mosquitoes have been the downfall of King Tut and the reason the Magna Carta was signed? Possibly, the author argues. Equally fascinating is the mosquito’s well-documented influence upon the ancient Greeks and major Western wars such as the American Revolution and the American Civil War. Deakins’s narration is sure to hold the listener’s attention despite some flaws found on the page. For instance, the author at times bogs things down with scientific jargon but then cheekily anthropomorphizes the mosquitoes as if they were characters in a story. But Deakins’s winning voice draws attention away from this inconsistent approach, much to the benefit of audiobook listeners. A.T.N. © AudioFile 2019, Portland, Maine

Kirkus Reviews

2019-05-26
A wandering treatment of one of life's constant annoyances and worse.

"We are at war with the mosquito," writes former military officer Winegard (History and Political Science/Colorado Mesa Univ.; The First World Oil War, 2016, etc.). There's reason for that: There are something like 110 trillion mosquitoes floating around humankind's ankles and nostrils at any given moment, and when you count up the death toll from malaria, Zika virus, dengue fever, and the like, mosquitoes are responsible for some 830,000 human deaths per year, logarithmic orders from the 10 or so humans who fall victim to sharks. Indeed, writes the author, doing the math, as many as half of all the humans who have ever lived may have fallen to mosquitoes, especially in the days before we discovered quinine, gin and tonics, and DDT. The case isn't overwrought; yellow fever alone is a cause for much misery in Africa and has otherwise been "a global historical game-changer." Winegard's drawn-out survey of history covers ground that is largely well known, including the role of mosquito-borne illnesses in the American Revolution and Civil War and the long effort, planned under Julius Caesar but not effected until Benito Mussolini's reign, to drain the Pontine Marshes outside Rome. The author does uncover some lesser-known moments, however, such as the malaria research conducted by Chinese scientists during the Vietnam War, and he's good on why some human populations seem more vulnerable to mosquito-borne illnesses than others. Overall, the book is serviceable but less fluent than Sonia Shah's The Fever, David DeKok's The Epidemic, Michael Osterholm and Mark Olshaker's Deadliest Enemy, and other popular accounts of all the malign things that await us out in the open air. And readers could probably have done without the anemic valediction to the fanged female at the close: "My judgment of her now vacillates between that sincere, loathing revulsion and a genuine respect and admiration."

An intermittently interesting but overlong book that is not likely to make much of a buzz.

Product Details

BN ID:	2940171851972
Publisher:	Penguin Random House
Publication date:	08/06/2019
Edition description:	Unabridged

Read an Excerpt

CHAPTER 1

Toxic Twins:

The Mosquito and Her Diseases
 
It has been one of the most universally recognizable and aggravating sounds on earth for 190 million years—the humming buzz of a mosquito. After a long day of hiking while camping with your family or friends, you quickly shower, settle into your lawn chair, crack an ice-cold beer, and exhale a deep, contented sigh. Before you can enjoy your first satisfying swig, however, you hear that all-too-familiar sound signaling the ambitious approach of your soon-to-be tormentors.

It is nearing dusk, her favorite time to feed. Although you heard her droning arrival, she gently lands on your ankle without detection, as she usually bites close to the ground. It’s always a female, by the way. She conducts a tender, probing, ten-second reconnaissance, looking for a prime blood vessel. With her backside in the air, she steadies her cross-hairs and zeros in with six sophisticated needles. She inserts two serrated mandible cutting blades (much like an electric carving knife with two blades shifting back and forth), and saws into your skin, while two other retractors open a passage for the proboscis, a hypodermic syringe that emerges from its protective sheath. With this straw she starts to suck 3–5 milligrams of your blood, immediately excreting its water, while condensing its 20% protein content. All the while, a sixth needle is pumping in saliva that contains an anticoagulant preventing your blood from clotting at the puncture site. This shortens her feeding time, lessening the likelihood that you feel her penetration and splat her across your ankle. The anticoagulant causes an allergic reaction, leaving an itchy bump as her parting gift. The mosquito bite is an intricate and innovative feeding ritual required for reproduction. She needs your blood to grow and mature her eggs.

Please don’t feel singled out, special, or view yourself as a chosen one. She bites everyone. This is just the inherent nature of the beast. There is absolutely no truth to the persistent myths that mosquitoes fancy females over males, that they prefer blondes and redheads over those with darker hair, or that the darker or more leathery your skin, the safer you are from her bite. It is true, however, that she does play favorites and feasts on some more than others.

Blood type O seems to be the vintage of choice over types A and B or their blend. People with blood type O get bitten twice as often as those with type A, with type B falling somewhere in between. Disney/ Pixar must have done their homework when portraying a tipsy mosquito ordering a “Bloody Mary, O-Positive” in the 1998 movie A Bug’s Life. Those who have higher natural levels of certain chemicals in their skin, particularly lactic acid, also seem to be more attractive. From these elements she can analyze which blood type you are. These are the same chemicals that determine an individual’s level of skin bacteria and unique body odor. While you may offend others and perhaps yourself, in this case being pungently rancid is a good thing, for it increases bacterial levels on the skin, which makes you less alluring to mosquitoes. Cleanliness is not next to godliness, except for stinky feet, which emit a bacterium (the same one that ripens and rinds certain cheeses) that is a mosquito aphrodisiac. Mosquitoes are also enticed by deodorants, perfumes, soap, and other applied fragrances.

While this may seem unfair to many of you, and the reason remains a mystery, she also has an affinity for beer drinkers. Wearing bright colors is also not a wise choice, since she hunts by both sight and smell— the latter depending chiefly on the amount of carbon dioxide exhaled by the potential target. So all your thrashing and huffing and puffing only magnetizes mosquitoes and puts you at greater risk. She can smell carbon dioxide from over 200 feet away. When you exercise, for example, you emit more carbon dioxide through both frequency of breath and output. You also sweat, releasing those appetizing chemicals, primarily lactic acid, that invite the mosquito’s attention. Lastly, your body temperature rises, which is an easily identifiable heat signature for your soon-to-be tormentor. On average, pregnant women suffer twice as many bites, as they respire 20% more carbon dioxide, and have a marginally elevated body temperature. As we will see, this is bad news for the mother and the fetus when it comes to infection from Zika and malaria.

Please don’t go on a shower, deodorant, and exercise strike or shelve your beloved beer and bright T-shirts just yet. Unfortunately, 85% of what makes you attractive to mosquitoes is prewired in your genetic circuit board, whether that be blood type; natural chemical, bacteria, or CO2 levels; metabolism; or stink and stench. At the end of the day, she will find blood from any exposed target of opportunity.

Unlike their female counterparts, male mosquitoes do not bite. Their world revolves around two things: nectar and sex. Like other flying insects, when ready to mate, male mosquitoes assemble over a prominent feature, ranging from chimneys to antennas to trees to people. Many of us grumble and flail in frustration as that dogged cloud of bugs droning over our heads shadows us when we walk and refuses to disperse. You are not paranoid, nor are you imagining this phenomenon. Take it as a compliment. Male mosquitoes have graced you with the honor of being a “swarm marker.” Mosquito swarms have been photographed extending 1,000 feet into the air, resembling a tornado funnel cloud. With the cocksure males stubbornly assembled over your head, females will fly into their horde to find a suitable mate. While males will mate frequently in a lifetime, one dose of sperm is all the female needs to produce numerous batches of offspring. She stores the sperm and dispenses them piecemeal for each separate birthing of eggs. Her short moment of passion has provided one of the two necessary components for procreation. The only ingredient missing is your blood.

Returning to our camping scenario, you just finished your strenuous hike and proceed to the shower, where you richly lather up with soap and shampoo. After toweling off, you apply a healthy dose of body spray and deodorant before finally putting on your bright red-and-blue beachwear. It is nearing dusk, dinnertime for the Anopheles mosquito, and you sit down in your lawn chair to relax with that well-deserved cold beer. You have done everything in your power to lure a famished female Anopheles mosquito (and by the way, I just moved to the seat that is farthest from you). Having just mated in a swarming frenzy of eager male suitors, she willingly takes your bait and makes off with a few drops of your blood.

She has taken a blood meal three times her own body weight, so she quickly finds the nearest vertical surface and, with the aid of gravity, continues to evacuate the water from your blood. Using this concentrated blood, she will develop her eggs over the next few days. She then deposits roughly 200 floating eggs on the surface of a small pool of water that has collected on a crushed beer can that was overlooked during cleanup as you and your party headed home. She always lays her eggs in water, although she does not need much. From a pond or stream to a minuscule collection in the bottom of an old container, used tire, or backyard toy, any will suffice. Certain types of mosquitoes desire specific types of water—fresh, salt, or brackish (a mixture)—while for others, any water will do the trick.

Our mosquito will continue to bite and lay eggs during her short life span of an average one to three weeks to an infrequent maximum longevity of five months. While she can fly up to two miles, she, like most mosquitoes, rarely ranges farther than 400 meters from her birthplace. Although it takes a few days longer in cool weather, given the high temperatures, her eggs hatch into wiggling water-bound worms (children) within two to three days. Skimming the water for food, these quickly turn into upside-down, comma-shaped tumbling caterpillars (teenagers) who breathe through two “trumpets” protruding from their water-exposed buttocks. A few days later, a protective encasement splits and healthy adult mosquitoes take to flight, with a new generation of succubus females anxious to feed on you once more. This impressive maturation to adulthood takes roughly one week.

The repetition of this life cycle has been uninterrupted on planet Earth since the first appearance of modern mosquitoes. Research suggests that mosquitoes, identical in appearance to those of today, surfaced as early as 190 million years ago. Amber, which is essentially petrified tree sap or resin, represents the crown jewels of fossilized insects, for it captures minute details such as webs, eggs, and the complete intact innards of its entombed. The two oldest fossilized mosquitoes on record are those preserved in amber from Canada and Myanmar dating from 105 to 80 million years ago. While the global environments these original bloodsuckers patrolled would be unrecognizable to us today, the mosquito remains the same.

Our planet was vastly different from the one we currently inhabit, as were most of the animals that called it home. If we navigate the evolution of life on earth, the devious partnership between insects and disease becomes strikingly clear. Single-cell bacteria were the first life-form to appear not long after the creation of our planet roughly 4.5 billion years ago. Spawning from a cauldron of gases and primordial oceanic ooze, they quickly established themselves, forming a biomass twenty-five times larger than all other plants and animals combined, and the foundation of petroleum and other fossil fuels. In one day, a single bacterium can spawn a culture of over four sextillion (twenty-one zeros), more than all other life on the planet. They are the essential ingredient and building block for all other life on earth. As specification commenced, asexual, cell-dividing bacteria adapted and found safer and more favorable homes as permanent guests on or in other host creatures. The human body contains one hundred times as many bacterial cells as it does human cells. For the most part, these symbiotic relationships are generally beneficial to the host as well as to the bacterial boarders.

It is the handful of negative pairings that cause problems. Currently, over one million microbes have been identified, yet only 1,400 have the potential to cause harm to humans. Twelve ounces (a standard-size pop can) of the toxin produced by the bacterium that causes botulism food poisoning, for example, is enough to kill every human being on the planet. Viruses then arrived, quickly followed by parasites, both mirroring the housing arrangements of their bacterial parent, ushering in the potent combinations for disease and death. The sole parental responsibility of these microbes is to reproduce . . . and . . . to reproduce. Bacteria, viruses, and parasites, along with worms and fungi, have triggered untold misery and have commanded the course of human history. Why have these pathogens evolved to exterminate their hosts?

If we can set aside our bias for a moment, we can see that these microbes have journeyed through the natural selection voyage just as we have. This is why they still make us sick and are so difficult to eradicate. You may be puzzled: It seems self-defeating and detrimental to kill your host. The disease kills us, yes, but the symptoms of the disease are ways in which the microbe conscripts us to help it spread and reproduce. It is dazzlingly clever, when you stop to think about it. Generally, germs guarantee their contagion and replication prior to killing their hosts.

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