Worried About Mosquito-Borne Diseases?

by News Desk
September 3, 2011

http://www.weeklyblitz.net/1745/worried-about-mosquito-borne-diseases

If mosquitoes have a sweet tooth, then it seems only logical to use sugar to lure and kill these disease-spreading insects. That was the simple thinking behind a new method for controlling malaria developed at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Recent experiments in Mali, West Africa, have demonstrated that this safe, uncomplicated insect control method really works.

"An obvious question is how people didn't see it before," says Prof. Yosef Schlein. The emeritus medical entomology professor says it was well-known that the sweet smell of nectar is irresistible to the buzzing, blood-sucking insects. A previous American study had even pinpointed which flowers they prefer.

Schlein took the next step of baiting traps with flowers in the Jordan Valley to determine which kind attracts the most mosquitoes. Then, his team sprayed a food-dyed sugar and toxin mixture on acacia trees, the sole flowering plant in the dry Arava region. As a control, a non-toxic solution dyed a different colour was sprayed in a different area. Because mosquitoes' bellies are transparent, it was easy to see the results. The toxic brew virtually wiped out the local mosquito population that feasted on it.

As detailed in a recent issue of the Malaria Journal, an international research team tested the Israeli-devised attractive toxic sugar bait method (ATSB) to determine how it might control malaria-bearing mosquitoes in the semi-arid Bandiagara District of Mali, West Africa. In Israel, using juice from the local guava and honey melons that mosquitoes adore, the Arava experiment was duplicated at primary larval habitats, using boric acid in the toxic batch. Both the poison and harmless solutions proved popular with mosquitoes, as evidenced by the colours of their bellies. The population of both female and male mosquitoes declined by about 90 percent and remained low during one month of monitoring. The females that survived were mostly too young to transmit malaria.

Related Topics:  International News receive the latest by email: subscribe to weekly blitz's free mailing list