clipped from: russiatoday.com Letting mosquitoes reproduce rather than killing them as fast as possible could be the key to controlling malaria epidemics, a paper suggests.
One of the biggest problems in insect control is that insecticides lose their efficiency very quickly as the insects mutate. In areas of intense spraying, having resistance is a huge benefit, and fast reproduction means the feature spreads quickly among the population. Today, most pesticides remain in use for just several years before the insects become resistant.
Science magazine reports that a paper by medical entomologist Andrew Read and his colleagues from Pennsylvania State University in University Park, says this can be prevented. The team modelled a situation where mosquitoes are sprayed with a slow poison to kill only old creatures.