Mosquito Hunter is Clifford Muteros first autobiographical account. It focuses on the evolution of his entomological career, which was ignited in his early childhood from around the age of six up to the stage when he completed his PhD studies in insect science at age thirty. It is a one-of-a-kind narration that sets out geosocial, historical, and entomological facts with a brand of humor that has the potential to instruct and inspire a new generation of would-be natural scientists through the soft lore behind scientific investigation. Set mainly in a quintessentially rural farming community in Central Kenya and also in coastal Kenya, this narration reflects the abundance of stories based on village events, which were enriched by news and music from the wider world via the bridging power of radio. Significantly, Mosquito Hunter pays high tribute to the various mentors who inspired the author towards research of the natural environment. Chief among them is his father, Felix Mutero, whose all-round mastery of efficient farming practices provided a master class of sorts to the future scholar. Themes ranging from health, education, love, family, music, poverty, and professional politics are all woven into this telling of the making of that rare species, the African insect scientist.

The book also tells the story of some of the mosquito species that contribute to human diseases such as malaria, filariasis,dengue, Zika, chikungunya, and Japanese encephalitis. These diseases have played an important role in slowing down the national progress through depleted economy, healthand intelligentsia. The country spends almost 50% of its health budget in fighting against these ailments. Therefore, it emerges that, besides the brutal facts of how the mosquito has insinuated itself into human history, from the malaria that devastated invaders of ancient Rome (Alexander ‘The Great’had reportedly died due to Plasmodium falciparum malaria while returning home after the battle with the Indian king Poru in the malaria infested Punjab region),the story of man's struggle to live with the mosquito, from the early 19th Century malaria-defeat inMian Mir under direct charge of DrSamuel Rickard Christophers, who advocated to Dr Ronalad Ross’s theory of ‘environment sanitation’,to the malaria-deaths of hundreds of rural inhabitants living in The Thar Desert’s irrigated Command Area under the world famous Indira Gandhi Nahar Pariyojana, in the early 1990s,and to the recent panic over the chikungunya virus’ in Kerala, as well as many other States and Union Territories, crippling thousands of people, in 2006, and deaths from dengue all over the country during 2012-14, need to be told to the modern generation of medical entomologists and vector-borne disease specialists to relive the moments of victories and defeats in this vicious age-old battle between man andmosquito. At the end we find that we have only ourselves to be blamed to a great extent for accelerating the spread of mosquitoes and the diseases they transmit; with climate change and increased international travel, mosquito-borne illnesses are flaring up all over the globe. Catastrophic failures of mosquito control have ensured that worldwide even now one person dies of malaria every twelve seconds. This book describes, ina mosquito's-eye view, how mosquito breeds, rests, feeds, flies, mate, and dies, besidesinteraction with her natural enemies. The book also deals with the current constraints and future control prospects of mosquito control. In view of the increasing resistance to insecticides and chemotherapy, the book throws light on the subject of greatest promise to ending mosquitoes' deadly assault on man by render them impotent by genetic manipulation by replacing them through paratransgenesis involving micro-organisms such as bacteria and fungi.

Of the 620,000 soldiers who perished during the American Civil War, the overwhelming majority died not from gunshot wounds or saber cuts, but from disease. In this ground-breaking medical history, Andrew McIlwaine Bell explores the impact of two terrifying mosquito-borne maladies---malaria and yellow fever---on the major political and military events of the 1860s, revealing how deadly microorganisms carried by a tiny insect helped shape the course of the Civil War.

**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. 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. 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.

On 15 November it came suddenly out of nowhere inches above the hangars with a crackling thunderclap of twin Merlins. As we watched, bewitched, it was flung about the sky in a beyond belief display for a bomber that could out perform any fighter. Well-bred whisper of a touch down, a door opened and down the ladder came suede shoes, yellow socks and the rest of Geoffrey de Havilland.The memories of Sergeant (later Flight Lieutenant DFC) Mike Carreck who was an observer with 105 Squadron when he first laid eyes on the new de Havilland Mosquito. This was an aircraft that would prove itself to be one of the most versatile and revered aircraft to fly with the RAF in World War II.This book is full of firsthand accounts from the crews that flew the Mossie in its roles as a bomber, long-range reconnaissance and low-level strike aircraft. The author has gathered together many of the most exciting operational reports that cover the period from the types introduction until the end of World War II. The text is interwoven with the background history of the personnel and squadrons, the purpose of the operations undertaken and their often devastating results.