COLLEGE PARK, Md. — Summer is quickly approaching, which means warmer sunny weather.
With that comes some negatives, like mosquitoes, the ones who bite and make us itchy, sometimes causing the spread of deadly disease.
If University of Maryland entomologist Raymond St. Leger has anything to say about it, the problem could soon be solved, or at least improved.
Recently St. Leger and a team of fellow researchers developed a new strain of fungus to fend off mosquitoes.
Metarhizium is described as a sexually transmitted disease male mosquitoes pass onto their female counterparts.
A press release from the University of Maryland College of Computer, Mathematical & Natural Sciences says the fungus "successfully turns the pesky mosquito’s sex life into its downfall."
For anyone wondering, researchers say the fungus is harmless to humans.
"This makes it a great alternative to chemical pesticides and other traditional mosquito repellents," the release states.
One major positive is its potential to help curb malaria, which is responsible for the deaths of 600,000 people around the world each year, including children under five in Africa who are most impacted.
According to St. Leger, mosquitoes have developed more resistance to antimalarial drugs over the years.
“It’s essentially an arms race between the mosquitoes and us,” said St. Leger who also serves as a Distinguished University Professor at UMD. “Just as they keep adapting to what we create, we have to continuously develop new and creative ways to fight them.”
The discovery comes after testing found nearly 90 percent of female mosquitoes died within two weeks of mating with an infected male.
Researchers believe male mosquitoes can transfer the fungus up to 24 hours after initial exposure, meaning they could spread it to multiple females.
“Interestingly, we noticed that the presence of the fungus did not deter female mosquitoes from mating with infected males. Mating rates stayed the same, which makes this fungus a very powerful mosquito population control tool,” St Leger said. “And the fungus additionally made infected mosquitoes less able to sense insecticides, and much more susceptible to them, so it’s really a double blow against them.”
St Leger hopes the fungus becomes a major breakthrough in combating mosquitoes, considering they are one of the world's deadliest animals.
“It’s believed that they alone, by transmitting disease, have killed half of all human beings who have ever lived,” St. Leger noted. “Being able to eliminate mosquitoes quickly and effectively will save people all over the world.”
To read the full published study, click here.
