An American genetic entomologist Richard Dell who works for Rosalind Medical Institute and who specializes in mutation in insects is sent to the small village of Bagga in Northern Egypt to collect live samples and to do research on an extremely rare breed of mosquitoes called African Figolosomas, known in the common Egyptian folklore by the name “Kolla Dhus”. Legends say that ‘Kolla Dhus’, meaning ‘wicked insects’ in Arabic, are the most intelligent among all the insect species and can even listen to what people say. Bullshitting the legend, Richard goes there to study its DNA structure that has given it the specialty of being very aggressive and of having the longest lifespan among all the mosquito species. “Kolla Dhus” are ostensibly the most aggressive “blood suckers” according to the villagers.
At Bagga, he is very well received by Mahmud Darrum, the local correspondent for the American Embassy in Egypt and he makes all the arrangement for Richard’s stay in that small village in a big indigenous hut of a trusted local after Richard rejects the plan of staying in the government caravan. Darrum also warns Richard of the ongoing ethnic conflict between the tribes of Bagga and its neighboring village Dogri. Ahmed Chrawalla, the butcher from Bagga in whose big hut made of reed and mud Richard is staying, tells him the story of “Kolla Dhus” mosquitoes, their “attack time” and the crude measures people adopt to maim the swarm. Having got sophisticated repellants from US, Richard doesn’t accept mosquito nets and against Chrawalla’s advice, he sleeps outside the hut the first night. He doesn’t get sleep for more than two hours and his anticipation goes in vain as he witnesses no sign of the “attacking” mosquito swarm. His repellent sprays and ointments lay unused beside his bed as he goes to sleep. At around 3 AM in the early morning, while it’s still very dark, Richard is woken up by a sheer, sharp and an extremely shrill continuous sound and he sees the biggest swarm of any insect ever. The sound of the swift wing flap gets shriller and the mosquitoes are all over his face, legs and hands. Flying away, coming back, biting and sucking blood, the mosquitoes cause havoc. People around him start burning firewood and get some real smoke to thrust the swarm away. His insect repellents stay helpless as they appear to be too immune to his weapons and his ointments are rendered utterly useless. With the itch of each bite killing him, he runs inside the hut and covers himself completely in a blanket and sits in a corner till the dawn. Richard experiences the fiercest insect attack of his life.
The next morning, he writes his experience to his research advisor and gets really interested in the mosquito. For the next night, he prepares his special customized net-house outside and gets some firewood ready as he decides to stay awake all night. But to his dismay, the insects do not attack that night. There was no sign of them for the next five nights. On the sixth night though, they recur. This time, cautious Richard burns firewood at their first sight and manages to collect a small swarm for his experiment. He is mesmerized by their blitzkrieg kind of attack. The next morning, he starts to look into them but the preliminary investigation with the apparatus he had reveals nothing exceptional about them. He sends the samples and his result back to United States for further analysis.
When the research team in US gets the first report of the lab analysis of its DNA, they are awestruck and enthralled. The DNA showed significant departure from the usual insectile strands and characteristics. What even more astonishing and startling was that it had substantial similarities with the strands and sequencing of early orangutans, highlighting their intelligence. The Lab immediately orders six of their research scientists to go to Bagga with the complete research kit, establish a temporary laboratory there and do a comprehensive research for a span of four months.
Meanwhile at Bagga, the ethnic tension worsens and the region turns a warzone with bloodsheds every single day. Because the Americans are unaware of this, they send the laboratory equipment and all the research kit with one lab technician in a mini-private jet while the other six research scientists fly in a second private-jet two days after the first one lands in Cairo, the capital of Egypt. While the first jet arrives safely and the technician and kit reaches Bagga, the six scientists from the second jet on their way to Bagga in government caravan from Cairo are kidnapped by the tribesmen of the rival Dogri village as they mistake them for Red-Cross doctors treating Bagga villagers. As it was supposed to be a clandestine research, Washington D.C denies its role in the whole operation and rejects sending an escort mission.
With help from neither the locals nor CIA coming his way, Richard Dell decides to act on his own and as an elite member of the research panel himself, he gears up to do the research all by himself, with the help of the technician who brought the kit. They set-up a temporary lab in Bagga and start working on the genes while the violence and the hostage issue persist. For almost three months, despite working round the clock, Richard could not extract or introduce any sequence changes on their DNA but could only notice that they responded to most variants of a special chemical named “G-Pheromone” which almost acted as an “instructor” for the mosquitoes as their distinct sequences appeared to advise them on when to attack, when to cease and even about creating special enzymes to outpower many repellants. Over a span of 6 months, Richard (who now looks like a mad scientist with a foot long tapered beard) succeeds in creating various variants of chemicals which apparently controlled the behavior of mosquitoes when sprayed at them (or on the eggs, which would result in the emerging larvae being under the influence of the chemical), like their sleeping habits, wing flap speed and “attacking time” enzyme secretion inside their body and many others. Within 3 more months, he masters the art of secreting variants of “G-Pheromone” literally controlling the mosquitoes on whose swarm (or eggs) the chemical is sprayed. In a year, he gets enough control over the breed of mosquitoes that he manages to “code” (secrete) the variant chemicals in a way that with specific wing flap frequency and speed complemented with a chemical that controls direction of flight, he makes the swarm play Beethoven’s Symphony No 5, as they flap their wings collectively making shrill tune and timbre controlled sound. He demonstrates the power of the mutation chemicals to the villagers by organizing a “Mosquito Orchestra” where he makes different swarms of mosquitoes make sounds of various songs with their systematic wing flaps.
By demoing such unprecedented powers of mosquitoes, he convinces the villagers about staging a mammoth “Mosquito Attack” on the Dogri tribesmen. Though skeptic at first, villagers agree to assist him when he assures them that he could make the mosquito swarms attack only in the direction of Dogri village as he commands. Preparations for the attack begin with the destruction of the ‘Khabulli’, the dense forest between the two villages that also served as the first line of defense. The move surprises Dogri fighters as the forest always was a safe haven for Bagga guerilla warriors. The plan was Richard’s idea, as he aimed to destroy all the existing “Kolla Dhus” larvae, eggs and mosquitoes that are not under the influence of “G-Pheromone” chemical. Richard and his assistant spend a month and a half in breeding the new eggs and systematically getting the larvae under the influence of the chemical and by providing the new breed of mosquitoes with blood proteins in the lab.
The climax is a fierce tribal war between the tribesmen of Dogri and the mosquitoes of Bagga controlled by Richard Dell and assisted by Bagga warriors. (Imagine a graphic scene of war, where mosquitoes are making targeted attacks on helpless men) Dogri villagers who never anticipated the “Mosquito Attack” in their wildest dreams fail to last long, as the immune mosquitoes guided by chemicals they were under the influence of, unceasingly cause mayhem and create a mess to Bagga tribesmen’s advantage. The film ends with hostages being freed by Bagga warriors. On the title credits, notes appear saying Richard Dell was awarded the highest honor by Rosalind Institute and was well appreciated for his heroic effort, in the United States.