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Mosquitoes Fatally Attracted to Deadly, Sweet-Smelling Potion

posted by CoolHand on Thursday August 24 2017, @04:38PM   
from the bloodsucker-witch-hunt dept.

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

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Original Submission

• Re:Nobody know... (Score: 3, Touché) by c0lo on Friday August 25 2017, @03:47AM

  by c0lo (156) on Friday August 25 2017, @03:47AM (#558722) Journal

  Lots of species go extinct every year and the world gets along just fine.

  Or so you like to think.

  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.

  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).

  There are hundreds of species of mosquitoes, and only a handful of them bite humans.

  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?

  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.

  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

  Parent

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