Review of "The Mosquito: A Human History of Our Deadliest Predator" by Timothy C. Winegard

In the book's introduction, author Timothy Winegard observes "We are at war with the mosquito. A swarming and consuming army of 110 trillion enemy mosquitoes patrols every inch of the globe save [a few areas]. The biting female warriors of this droning insect population are armed with at least fifteen lethal and debilitating biological weapons....The mosquito has killed more than any other cause of death in human history....Yet the mosquito does not directly harm anyone. [I have to demur here. There's the very annoying itching!] It is the toxic and highly evolved diseases she transmits that cause an endless barrage of desolation and death."



Winegard goes on to explain that mosquitoes transmit the protozoan disease malaria; the nematode worm disease elephantiasis; the viral diseases dengue fever, yellow fever, Zika; and more. The worst offenders are the Anopheles and Aedes mosquitoes, which are the scourge of humankind.


Dorsal view of the Anopheles mosquito


Head of the Anopheles mosquito


Swarm of mosquitoes

Winegard does describe the life cycle of the malaria parasite, Plasmodium, but the book doesn't focus on biology.



The author is a military historian, and the narrative is essentially a history of the world, concentrating on conflicts, wars, colonization, etc......with a bit about mosquitoes decimating armies; destroying settlements; and so on. Mosquitoes even had a hand in the slave trade, because African people had developed resistance to malaria (in the form of sickle cell anemia), and could be put to work on pineapple plantations, sugar plantations, and cotton plantations without succumbing to malaria. Conversely, White people on plantations died in droves.



To demonstrate the book's focus, here are some chapter headings:

General Anopheles: from Athens to Alexander
Mosquito Legions: The Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire
Unrepentant Mosquitoes: A Crisis of Faiths and the Crusades
Mosquito Hordes: Genghis Khan and the Mongol Empire
The Columbian Exchange: Mosquitoes and the Global Village
The Crucible of Disease: Colonial Wars and a New World Order
Unalienable Bites: The American Revolution
Mercenary Mosquitoes: Wars of Liberation and the Making of the Americas
Mosquitoes of Manifest Destiny: Cotton, Slavery, Mexico, and the American South
This is Ann: She's Dying to Meet You: The Second World War, Dr. Seuss, and DDT.
..... and more.

Winegard's chapter headings are clever and the book is chock full of interesting information about famous historical figures like Alexander the Great - the Macedonian general who first showed his mettle at age 10, by quieting a huge feral horse;



Cyrus the Great - the Persian king who freed the Jews from Babylonia;



Sir Francis Drake - who was dubbed a 'pirate' by the Spanish for raiding their ships;



Christopher Columbus - the Italian explorer who brought deadly diseases to the (so-called) New World;



John Smith - who made up an entire mythology about himself and Pocahontas (contrary to Disney cartoons);



farmers on the English fens - who might have 25 wives, one after another, because pregnant women are especially attractive to mosquitoes, and the women kept dying from malaria;



and much more.

Though the book is instructive, I'm more interested in the biological aspects of mosquitoes than a synopsis of world history. But if you're a history buff, this might be the book for you.

Note: Reading this book reminded me of a personal experience. I was doing field work in Missouri, and recall chasing a mosquito - which seemed to be the size of a hawk - around my motel room with a rolled up magazine. LOL

Rating: 3.5 stars