By: Raul Ramos Jr.
Pest control is an ongoing battle in practically every country,
and in most cases, the mosquito takes the spotlight. Although there are effective
methods of disease control and prevention from mosquitoes, there is a tug-of-war
relationship between effectiveness and sustainability. Before countries began
organizing stricter policies on pesticides, chemicals like DDT were used widespread
because of the effectiveness of the chemical. However, these chemicals trickle
all throughout ecosystems and are highly carcinogenic to humans at very low
concentrations. Controlling the spread of mosquito borne diseases would allow
for a better day to day life for people in lots of third world countries.
There are various methods being implemented currently for
mosquito population control, from chemicals to genetically modified organisms.
However, researchers in Florida experimented with a new method of controlling
mosquito population with biodegradable compounds. Controlling the mosquito
population may not seem like the ideal method, but it makes so much sense. If
less mosquitoes exist, then there’s less of a chance for diseases to get around.
A mosquito pheromone, acetoxy hexadecanolide (AHD), was used
to attract pregnant mosquitos to the males. Scientists used a biodegradable was
material containing two different types of mosquito killing bacteria in it. The
method was designed so that males would attract the females,
which would result in contact with the bacteria. These contaminated females
would then travel into their breeding grounds where they would then be a
transporter of these mosquito killing bacteria.
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