Scientists can now battle Zika using insecticide which makes mosquitoes EXPLODE
Boffins develop new chemical which make mozzies swell to a massive size and even blow up
BOFFINS at Vanderbilt University Medical Center have developed a new insecticide which makes mosquitoes blow up when they come into contact with it.
Known as “mosquitocide”, the chemical compound obstructs the bugs' salt-ejecting pores, preventing them from emitting urine after they bite humans.
This means that the bugs -which transmit the deadly zika and malaria viruses - swell up.
Malaria kills an estimated 725,000 people a year whilst affecting a further 200 million people across the globe.
Professor Jerod S. Denton, associate professor of Anesthesiology and Pharmacology at Vanderbilt said “we're essentially preventing mosquitoes from producing urine after they take a blood meal”.
He added: "What our compounds do is stop urine production, so they swell up and can't volume regulate, and in some cases they just pop."
Mozzies have developed a genetic resistance to most existing forms of insecticide so it’s hoped that the new compound may be able to provide a way to fight the
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"By targeting blood feeding female mosquitoes, we predict that there will be less selective pressure for the emergence of resistant mutations," Denton said.
Whilst trials of the chemical are continuing, it is hoped that if successful the compound will be rolled out commercially as a spray, saving potentially thousands of lives.
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