Device may stop dengue fever by slaughtering pregnant mosquitos [Madscience]

Put this one within the ” We’d feel bad about it if they were mammals” files. With dengue fever infections on the upward thrust and two fifths of the realm’s population in danger, scientists devise a scent trap that kills pregnant mosquitos.

There are dangers to navigating the area using scent. These dangers are multiplied when living in a worldwide by which chemistry has advanced enough to create or mask certain vital scents. When looking for places to lay their eggs, female mosquitos seek for damp areas with decaying matter; which they mostly find in swamps. The eggs remain undisturbed until they breed a better generation of whining bloodsuckers. Recently researchers developed a low-tech device shaped like a trash can and doused with a chemical mixture that smells like the decaying matter which attracts pregnant mosquitos in. Inside, the mosquitos land on insecticidal fabric, which kills them and any eggs they’ve laid.

It’s a grisly end to the miracle of life, however it has the benefit of being cheap, and of being as specifically targeted as possible. Female mosquitos are the ones that bite, and during pregnancy they’re particularly voracious. Not only does the scented trap draw in barely female mosquitos, it draws them in at a selected, and high-risk, time. Female mosquitos soak up blood before and after laying their eggs. Often, Dengue fever is spread because the mosquitos drew blood from an infected person, laid their eggs, and were still carrying the infected blood after they moved on to a better meal.

The trash can trap is small enough to have near humans, which means when a female mosquito bites an individual, she would head to the trap before biting the following individual. Despite the fact that someone with dengue gets biten, the disease will not be passed on because the mosquito is trapped before it’s going to move on to its next victim.

Dengue is not any joke. One hundred million individuals are infected each year, five hundred thousands are hospitalized, and around 2.5% of those hospitalized die. Two fifths of the sector is in a dengue infected area, and in some countries it’s some of the leading causes of death among children. a foul-smelling trash can can be a great way to sharply curb the spread of infection.

Via Live Science and the World Health Organization .

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This post is tagged: bloodsuckers, chemical mixture, female mosquito, hundred million, miracle of life, scientists, upward thrust