LONG BEACH, Calif. – Bill Gates set a conference abuzz when he opened a jar of mosquitoes onstage to make a point about malaria prevention.

"There's no reason only poor people should have the experience," the billionaire co-founder of Microsoft said at the TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design) conference Wednesday in Long Beach.

Audience members including technology leaders laughed nervously as the insects swarmed across the auditorium. Gates assured them that the bugs were not carrying malaria.  Gates talked about his philanthropic foundation's fight against malaria, a preventable and treatable disease that kills more than 1 million people a year, mostly in Africa.  Gates said fighting the disease must be a higher priority.

"There is more money put into baldness drugs than into malaria," Gates said.  The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has committed $1.4 billion to fight malaria and is backing a vaccine that could reduce deaths by more than two-thirds if it is effective, he said.