In a small, unassuming building at Jacksonville Naval Air Station, Navy scientists are quietly waging war and testing new weapons to more efficiently kill the enemy.

Begun in response to the withering effects of malaria and dengue fever on Marines in World War II fighting in the tropical jungles of the South Pacific, the Navy Entomology Center of Excellence is the tip of the spear when it comes to insect-borne diseases.

"In some cases, you had 1,500 cases of malaria and dengue fever per 1,000 Marines," Capt. Eric Hoffman, the Officer in Charge of NECE, said. "So you were looking at some guys having multiple cases."

In 1949, the headquarters of Navy entomology was moved to Jacksonville. The team partners with organizations from colleges to the World Health Organization.

Members of the group, only 36 strong, deploy with U.S. forces around the world and bring back what they learn to Jacksonville.

Ph.D.s in Navy fatigues roam the halls of the nondescript building examining cases filled with enough insects to make one's skin crawl.

"What you've got here is three different populations," Cmdr. Peter Obenauer said as he pointed to three boxes filled to the brim with mosquitoes and bowls of blood for food.

"One is susceptible to insecticide so we know that it kills them and another one that is resistant to insecticide so you can compare them," he said. "And this one is our native population that you find right here in Jacksonville."

The mosquitoes are often used to test insecticides used by local mosquito control districts when they aren't having the desired effect. The entomologists can then tell them whether the winged bloodsuckers have grown immune.

In another room, tubs full of brown, stagnant water remind one of why weathermen encourage people to empty that five-gallon bucket full of rainwater in the yard.

The tubs are teeming with mosquito larvae undergoing testing of pyriproxyfen, a substance that actually prevents the larvae from developing into adults.

Farther into the recesses of the lab, Lt. Hanayo Arimoto examines a petri dish full of bed bugs, carefully counting each one.

"A company gave us an opportunity to test a new pesticide against bedbugs," Hoffman said. "It's not registered yet, they just wanted to see if it worked as well as they thought it did."

"You can see here after only about two hours of exposure and these are all dead," Arimoto said.

But the scientists don't only test pesticides, they also test delivery systems.

One of the weapons bears a close resemblance to Jesse Ventura's minigun in the movie "Predator."

The SuperHawk thermal fogger gushes forth a thick cloud that quickly fogs an area the size of a football field.

But high-tech isn't the only way to go. The scientists have also been testing a tube containing hornets that detect bedbugs.

The hornets are trained to detect the minute pheromones emitted by the bedbugs. When they enter a room with even one bedbug, the hornets gather at the screened-in openings of the tube.

From malaria in the Pacific, to leishmaniasis in Iraq and Afghanistan, the Entomology Center is constantly vigilant - though military men don't always prove the easiest patients.

Soldiers in World War II often refused the quinine pills given to them to prevent malaria because of a rumor they caused impotency. It seems some things haven't changed.

"Oh, they still think that today, so um …," Hoffman said. "You'd be surprised."