Mosquito Birth Control May Prove More Environmentally Friendly Than Insecticides

(Credit: all_about_people/shutterstock) (Inside Science) -- Scientists searching for environmentally friendly ways to fight the menace of mosquitoes may want to consider a new type of pesticide, according to a new study. Mosquitoes are more than an annoyance at summer picnics -- the World Health Organization has estimated the insects kill several million people each year by transmitting diseases such as malaria and yellow fever. A common way to fight mosquito-borne illnesses in places where there can be high rates of transmission, such as the tropics, is to spray insecticides around living areas or drape insecticide treated nets over beds. The substances usually kill adult mosquitoes on contact by preventing the insects' nerve cells from firing properly. However, the insecticides can sometimes harm beneficial insects too, and they are becoming less effective because mosquitoes are evolving resistance. Now a team of researchers from the University of Arizona in Tucson and San ...