Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:
Mosquitoes aren't just blood thirsty. They also have a sweet tooth, relying on plant nectar to get the sugar they need to survive. Exploiting this weakness, scientists have developed an environmentally friendly eradication method. The new, inexpensive technique tricks these annoying pests into gorging themselves on insecticides laced with a concoction that mimics the sweet-smelling scents and aromas that they find irresistible. It could bolster efforts to suppress malaria, Zika and other mosquito-borne diseases worldwide.
The researchers are presenting their work today at the 254th National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society (ACS).
"The blend of chemicals that we use to attract mosquitoes is so powerful that they will ignore natural plant odors and attractants in order to get to our formulation," says Agenor Mafra-Neto, Ph.D. "From a mosquito's point of view, it's like having an irresistible chocolate shop on every corner. The product is so seductive that they will feed on it almost exclusively, even when it contains lethal doses of insecticide."
Conventional chemical insecticides used to control mosquitoes are used as cover sprays, frequently dispersed over wide areas. But this blanket spray approach exposes people and animals to potentially harmful compounds and can kill bees and other beneficial insects. In addition, residues of these sprays can contaminate soils and streams, as well as promote increased pesticide resistance. To overcome these issues, Mafra-Neto of ISCA Technologies and colleagues at several universities sought to create a more targeted approach using an insecticide potion spiked with a blend of semiochemicals, or chemical signals, that mosquitoes can't resist.
-- submitted from IRC
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 24 2017, @04:49PM (6 children)
Irresistibly sweet-smelling, lethal doses of insecticide?
Coming up next, Colony Collapse Disorder 2.0!
(Score: 2) by bob_super on Thursday August 24 2017, @05:09PM (4 children)
The simple answer to that problem is a plastic mesh which doesn't let the bees touch the product.
How many decades of positive marketing before we learn that the magic chemicals which attract mosquitoes also cause lung cancer, glaucoma, and fingernail atrophy?
(Score: 3, Informative) by frojack on Friday August 25 2017, @12:32AM (2 children)
Or worse, breed mosquitoes that aren't susceptible to the pesticides. Can't we stop making the same mistake over and over?
Using this concoction as a lure is fine, but don't lace it with pesticides, just put it behind an electrified screen (bug zapper). Its hard to develop a resistance to 2000 volts.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 2) by bob_super on Friday August 25 2017, @12:41AM
You won't get us, we've read the studies[1] on zapping living things in the presence of crazy chemicals, radioactivity, or genetic stuff ([1]Lee and Kirby, 1950 and later)
Great, just what we need, Super-Moquito ...
(Score: 3, Interesting) by TheLink on Friday August 25 2017, @06:38AM
2) There are zillions of blood sucking mosquitoes, it's likely there are enough mosquitoes that are not that attracted to this blend. So if this gets widespread use, eventually most mosquitoes will be immune to this concoction whether by not being attracted or not drinking a lethal dose etc.
In contrast it'll be better if the concoction smelled very much like humans. Having mosquitoes evolve to NOT want to head towards humans is a plus not a minus.
Surround your sweaty t-shirt and socks with bug zappers and maybe a fan in a suitable configuration. Have the mosquitoes in your area evolve to not being attracted to you ;).
My room has windows with meshes that prevent mosquitoes from getting in, so I used to leave a bug zapper close to one of my windows and have a fan blowing in my room so that air from my room would go out that window. By the mesh in that window I'd also put little trays filled with vegetable oil, or soapy water (to break the surface tension) as mosquito traps- and lots of mosquitoes will eventually drop in while flying against the mesh.
Now due to various clean ups (town council finally fixed the broken drains etc) there aren't as many mosquitoes. So I haven't done that sort of thing in a while.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 25 2017, @04:42PM
Dead bugs compost. poisoned bugs are not good compost / nature food.
It's GREEDY to make it poison-- the LURE is the solution here, the poison is a new problem. LURE them into a bug zapper but that makes you buy less product from them...
(Score: 3, Interesting) by DannyB on Thursday August 24 2017, @06:21PM
How about Mosquitoes 2.0. Evolved to not be fooled by artificial plant odors. And evolved with a tendency to be extra aggressive against humans who are associated with mosquito deaths.
The lower I set my standards the more accomplishments I have.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by meustrus on Thursday August 24 2017, @04:49PM (2 children)
Where can I buy some? I want to murder all mosquitoes within 20 miles of my home.
If there isn't at least one reference or primary source, it's not +1 Informative. Maybe the underused +1 Interesting?
(Score: 2) by Zinho on Thursday August 24 2017, @05:37PM (1 child)
Nowhere, yet, as far as I can tell.
some interesting things I found while looking:
* Their trademark for the insecticide, "Vectrax", is also used [justia.com] in the industrial sector for selling lathes and mills.
* $1,000,000 of their startup funding came from the U.S. Dept. of Defense in the form of a microloan. On the application they also suggest it could be useful against filth flies and sand flies. [sbir.gov]
Given the fact that they're pushing press releases now, I hope that they'll start selling it soon. I'd happily put bait stations around my property to get the stupid things to stop biting me and my kids.
"Space Exploration is not endless circles in low earth orbit." -Buzz Aldrin
(Score: 2) by Zinho on Thursday August 24 2017, @06:37PM
Update on where to buy:
This falls under the product category of "Attractive Toxic Sugar Bait" (ATSB), research for which has been going on since the 60s.
that works like this, intended for spraying on shrubs. [baitandkill.com]
There's another product, simply called "ATSB", from ADAPCO; [myadapco.com] however, I'm having trouble finding a place for homeowners to purchase any.
"Space Exploration is not endless circles in low earth orbit." -Buzz Aldrin
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 24 2017, @04:49PM (6 children)
I hate mosquitoes as much as anyone, but these little bastards aren't the only ones who like sugar/nectar.
Bees home in on plants due to UV cues as much as anything else, so perhaps they won't be hugely affected. But just randomly spraying this stuff around is definitely going to hit other species, too. Not just insects, either - hummingbirds are all about sugar. At this stage, probably best to have cautious optimism at best.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by Grishnakh on Thursday August 24 2017, @05:21PM (3 children)
I didn't read TFA, but I think the idea is that you don't spray this stuff at all; you set traps. With that approach, you can do what another poster here suggested and design the trap so birds and bees simply can't get to the poison. Mosquitoes are much, much smaller than bees (or hummingbirds for that matter), so they can fit into tiny places those other creatures cannot. The main problem I see is if there's other insects the size of mosquitoes that would also be attracted.
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Thursday August 24 2017, @08:35PM (2 children)
Cool. I can see the trap filled to the brim with mosquito corpses in, like, half an hour (Ok, let's be generous, 30 minutes).
After which... how can new mosquitoes get to reach the bait?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 2) by Grishnakh on Thursday August 24 2017, @09:15PM (1 child)
I'm sure someone can come up with a clever solution to avoid the trap being clogged with dead mosquitoes. This isn't that hard.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 24 2017, @11:40PM
Gorge, fly off in search of blood, in a half hour or so, the bug is experiencing metabolic failures.
(Score: 2) by ese002 on Thursday August 24 2017, @05:21PM (1 child)
Technically, it wouldn't effect hummingbirds because there are no hummingbirds in Tanzania where the testing is happening. But, yeah, lots of animals like sweets. Butterflies, moths, many varieties of pollinating and non-pollinating wasps, ants. Also sun birds (sort of the Old World version of a humming bird), bears, monkeys. It is likely that the insecticide would not be fatal to any vertebrates and it is probably not very good for them. Insects come in such an amazing variety, it would be nearly impossible to select a sweet that would only attract and kill mosquitoes.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 24 2017, @08:23PM
I didn't realize this, but hummingbirds are exclusively a North American phenomenon. [google.com]
-- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Azuma Hazuki on Thursday August 24 2017, @04:55PM (1 child)
Since mosquitoes, IIRC, are attracted to CO2 and heat in ways other bugs aren't, why not add an infrared emitter and a small CO2 pack to these things? That might stop bees and other sugar-loving critters from getting hurt, and pull MORE mosquitoes in.
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 1) by anubi on Thursday August 24 2017, @11:45PM
Sounds like an old school propane gas light would work?
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]
(Score: -1, Spam) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 24 2017, @05:02PM
Where is Thumbkin? Where is Thumbkin?
Here I am! Here I am!
How are you today, Sir? Very well, I thank you!
Run away! Run away!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 24 2017, @05:19PM (8 children)
It's only the females that suck on mammal blood for reproduction, whereas the males feed on plant nectar and such. Wouldn't it mostly take out the males, possibly counterproductive outcome?
(Score: 2, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 24 2017, @05:35PM (2 children)
Feminists everywhere are outraged at your suggestion that the elimination of males could be anything but productive. But not reproductive.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 24 2017, @06:03PM (1 child)
Men Fatally Attracted to Deadly, Tang-Smelling Pussy
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 24 2017, @11:51PM
Nothing unusual there.
Police have been setting out "pussy traps" for years to trap johns.
(Score: 2) by fraxinus-tree on Thursday August 24 2017, @05:48PM (1 child)
Female mosquitoes feed on plant nectar just as well as male ones. They just like the blood better.
(Score: 3, Informative) by HiThere on Thursday August 24 2017, @06:03PM
It's not even that they like blood better. It's that they need blood every so often (1/month?) or they can't produce (fertile?) eggs. Mostly what they eat is sap, just like the male mosquitoes.
Javascript is what you use to allow unknown third parties to run software you have no idea about on your computer.
(Score: 3, Informative) by Immerman on Thursday August 24 2017, @05:51PM (1 child)
Females feed on nectar too. Basically nectar is the "keep me alive" food, while the females *also* require blood to make them fertile. So this should take out mosquitoes of all genders.
Out of curiosity though, even if this primarily took out the males, how would that be counterproductive? Males are after all *slightly* necessary to reproduction as well (at least among mosquitoes and most other two-gendered species). Of course to get much direct benefit you'd have to eliminate enough of the males that fertile females go a lot longer unbred, so it might be ineffective in the short term, but not actually counterproductive. And in the longer term you'd still be shrinking the size of the gene pool, rendering the species more vulnerable to other threats.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Sulla on Thursday August 24 2017, @06:54PM
If it primarily took out the males it would be interesting to see how long until offspring are not attracted to the poison. Could drastically change the way the mosquitoes go about their daily lives to have the 3% population that doesn't like sweet things be 100% of the parents.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4726748/ [nih.gov]
This link talks about a species where the males do feed on blood (occasionally) but it shortens their lives from a month to three days. Given swarms I imagine there is still time to make offspring. So natural selection will allow mosquitoes that like blood to double down on their blood lust and I imagine make the problem a whole lot worse to fix in the long-run. Areas that do not have any species where the males are willing to drink blood could die off before adaptation occurs though.
Can I get the rights to the speculative film on SyFy where full implementation leads to oversized males who drink blood being the only ones to survive (large enough mouth parts to actually feed on vertebrates) breeding with females who only drink blood causing a neverending cycle of gigantism and death.
Ceterum censeo Sinae esse delendam
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 24 2017, @08:47PM
We had a story which mentioned specifically that it was the males that were targeted WRT population control.
Another had a summary which didn't mention gender specifically (though everything I can remember ever seeing WRT reproduction rates has been aimed at sterilizing the males).
...and it's surprising how often we have stories about mosquitoes. [soylentnews.org]
-- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by LoRdTAW on Thursday August 24 2017, @06:57PM
This would be amazing if it could control the Asian Tiger mosquito. Those little bastards are all over NYC and you can't do anything outdoors without these fuckers swarming you. Last weekend I was working on my truck when I kid you not I found myself in a cloud of about 20 of them. At one point I swatted at one on my pants and I saw about 3 others fly off. I quickly packed it in and called it a day but suffered a few bites on my arms. They are out night and day plus regular bait won't attract them.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by c0lo on Thursday August 24 2017, @08:39PM (6 children)
One should note that nobody knows how the ecology will function without mosquitoes.
I can tell Batman won't be happy to die of starvation - but what's the next link to collapse? Or explode in the niche the mosquitoes used to take?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 2) by mhajicek on Thursday August 24 2017, @09:01PM (3 children)
In addition, how do the bats etc. fair on a diet of poisoned mosquitos?
The spacelike surfaces of time foliations can have a cusp at the surface of discontinuity. - P. Hajicek
(Score: 2) by Grishnakh on Thursday August 24 2017, @09:17PM (1 child)
Surely the idea is that the poisoned mosquitoes die very quickly, probably even before they leave the trap. At least I hope it's that effective; if the mosquitoes are flying around for some time filled with poison, that would certainly wreak havoc on the bats.
(Score: 2) by linkdude64 on Thursday August 24 2017, @10:16PM
Or the other people they might bite with the poison in them...
(Score: 2) by fraxinus-tree on Friday August 25 2017, @10:08AM
Most insecticides are harmless or do very little damage to mammals (bats and humans included). And no one said that the "solution" will be deployed world-wide.
I have bats living under my roof. They made my yard almost mosquito-less. The landlord was skeptical for them until I explained what they feed on.
(Score: 0, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 25 2017, @02:53AM (1 child)
Lots of species go extinct every year and the world gets along just fine.
We killed off the short faced bear and the sabre tooth tiger so our villages would be safe. We killed off the passenger pigeon (it was a trade-off so we could have agriculture and avoid famines). We killed off smallpox and polio (almost). Life goes on, and it got a lot better for us.
There are hundreds of species of mosquitoes, and only a handful of them bite humans. Bats eat a whole lot more than just mosquitoes. Trust me, eradicating two or three species of mosquitoes won't even be noticed except by all the grateful humans who are no longer getting bit or diseased by them. And possibly by the few pathogens and parasites that use those mosquitoes as attack vectors. I don't get the hold-up. This is our planet. Let's start managing it better.
(Score: 3, Touché) by c0lo on Friday August 25 2017, @03:47AM
Or so you like to think.
For now. By what you listed, we eliminated the top predators, to replace them with... us.
Nowadays, we are working to destroy the lower parts of the food chain [theconversation.com].
This won't end well, even if maybe I'm not gonna live until the things go unsurvivable for humans (which is a cowardly way of whispering "Après nous le déluge" instead of just being proud of saying it. Doh... like it would make any difference).
And you think the poison will be tailored for the mosquitoes that bite humans and will be innocuous for the rest? Or... maybe the other mosquitoes won't like syrup bait?
Ahhh, I'll sleep so much better tonight! An AC gave me a strong warranty on S/N that only two or three species of mosquitoes will be eradicated!!
Surgical precision, one would almost say... if not for the fear of being misinterpreted, like in "surgically desexing one by one all the individuals of the mosquitoes species to be eradicated".
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 25 2017, @08:20AM
What are the chances that other inseccts/animals would also get attracted by the sweet smell? And yeah, what about the animals that feed on mosquitos?