There may be a new way to battle the spread of Zika and other deadly diseases transmitted by mosquitoes: Just scare them to death.
While many species of mosquitoes are building up resistance to pesticides — which can often kill other unintended victims such as bees — a researcher in Belgium has taken a new approach to trying to kill mosquitoes
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Lin Op De Beeck, a PhD student at the University of Leuven, is relying on a pesticide as well as a natural predator to mosquitoes — the backswimmer.
The scent of a predator can cause prey to become fearful of being eaten, De Beeck explained.
Mixing a cocktail of these synthetic pheromones (a scent given off by animals and insects) together with the biological pesticide bacillus thuringiensis israelensis, DeBeeck found the mortality of the mosquitoes increased significantly.
The stress response suppresses the mosquito’s immune system, so even those that surive will have a shortened lifespan.
While the testing has only been done in the laboratory so far, there are plans to study it in a natural setting. And it’s hoped that it will pave the way to safer and more effective ways to eliminate the spread of disease, such as Zika, which has spread to more than 60 countries since it was first identified in Brazil last year.
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