Control
The main way to control avian malaria is to control mosquito populations. Hunting and removing pigs helps, because wallows from feral pigs and hollowed out logs of the native hapu'u ferns provide dirty standing water where the mosquito breeds (USDI and USGS 2005). Around houses, reducing the number of potential water catchment containers helps reduce the mosquito breeding sites (SPREP Undated). However, in Hawaii attempts to control the mosquitoes by larval habitat reduction and larvicide use have not eliminated the threat.
It may also be possible to find birds that are resistant to malaria, collect eggs and raise young birds for re-introduction into areas where birds are not resistant, giving the species a head-start on spreading resistance. There is evidence for evolution of resistance to avian malaria in two endemic species, Oahu Amakihi and Hawaii Amakihi. If other species can be preserved for long enough, they may evolve resistance as well. One tactic would be to reforest high-elevation areas on the island of Hawai'i, for example above the refuge of Hakalau on land managed by the Department of Hawaiian Homelands. This could give birds more time to adapt before climate change or mosquito evolution bring avian malaria to the last remaining bird populations.
Read more about this topic: Avian Malaria
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“The human mind is indeed a cave swarming with strange forms of life, most of them unconscious and unilluminated. Unless we can understand something as to how the motives that issue from this obscurity are generated, we can hardly hope to foresee or control them.”
—Charles Horton Cooley (1864–1929)
“The three-year-old who lies about taking a cookie isn’t really a “liar” after all. He simply can’t control his impulses. He then convinces himself of a new truth and, eager for your approval, reports the version that he knows will make you happy.”
—Cathy Rindner Tempelsman (20th century)
“America is neither free nor brave, but a land of tight, iron- clanking little wills, everybody trying to put it over everybody else, and a land of men absolutely devoid of the real courage of trust, trust in life’s sacred spontaneity. They can’t trust life until they can control it.”
—D.H. (David Herbert)