more mosquito nectar ways being worked on

They filled old soda bottles with a solution of brown sugar, the juice of rotting nectarines, Spinosad and a dye. They put each in a sock with a wick that helped keep the sock soaked with the colorful fatal elixir. They suspended a bait at the opening of each cistern.

The scientists chose a rural road in Mali running past ponds where two aggressive mosquito species breed — Anopheles gambiae and Anopheles arabiensis. They sprayed weeds there with a solution of the fermented juice of local guavas and melons mixed with dye and boric acid.

In tests in Israel and in West Africa, the baits knocked down mosquito populations by 90 percent. Even better, they nearly eliminated older females, the most dangerous mosquitoes. (Only females bite humans, and only mosquitoes that have already picked up malaria, dengue or another disease from one human can inject it with their saliva into another human.)

Researchers on Sunday reported initial signs of success from the first release into the environment of mosquitoes engineered to pass a lethal gene to their offspring, killing them before they reach adulthood.

Newswise — Strains of a bacterium commonly found in fruit flies can prevent the Aedes aegypti mosquito from transmitting the virus that causes dengue fever, researchers have found. Their discovery could lead to a more effective way to control dengue worldwide.

North Carolina State University mathematical biologist Dr. Alun Lloyd is part of the Eliminate Dengue program, a research consortium that includes scientists from Australia and the United States. The program aims to stop the Aedes aegypti mosquito from transmitting dengue virus between humans by introducing a naturally occurring bacterium called Wolbachia – which is not harmful to humans – into the existing wild mosquito population.

Genetic hacking - a brilliant solution

American scientist Anthony James, from UC Irvine, has made mosquito genetics the focus of his career - and his latest invention is a genetically modified mosquito designed to bring populations of Aedes aegypti down from within.

In short, the modified genes affect only the female mosquitoes, rendering them flightless. The larvae hatch on the water, and the females are unable to leave, rendering them harmless to humans and leaving them to die. The males are unaffected, so they mature normally, then mate with other females to pass the genetic modification on.

It's an extremely effective way of triggering a mosquito population crash - James and his colleagues have proven in cage-based testing in Mexico that a sufficient number of genetically hacked males can completely decimate a mosquito population within a few months. The table below shows this genetic genocide in action - within 23 and 33 weeks, the genetically modified males managed to completely destroy the otherwise stable mosquito population in James' test cages.