Mosquito

A type of volcanic glass, perlite is frequently used as building insulation or a potting soil additive. According to a new study, though, it also works quite well at killing malaria-causing mosquitos.

Several years ago, we heard how scientists were looking at eradicating malaria-carrying mosquitoes by making the females infertile. Now they're going a step further, by eliminating the females altogether.

Researchers have taken inspiration from a mosquito's ability to fly and land in the dark to develop a new collision-avoidance sensory system for drones that mimics the insect's ability to use airflow to detect obstacles.

A study modeling the impact of rising temperatures on suitable habitats for disease carrying mosquitoes has found such regions are expanding at a steady rate, with warnings the mosquitoes could become common in southern Europe within 10 years.

A newly discovered microbe identified in wild mosquito populations in Kenya has been found to protect the insects from malaria infection and could be recruited for malaria control strategies to limit transmission of the disease into human populations.

In order to gauge the risk of mosquito-borne diseases, authorities typically monitor the numbers of specific mosquito types that are known to carry those illnesses. A new system makes it possible to do so remotely, and thus more effectively.

New research hints at the possibility that more effective, less toxic mosquito traps and repellents could one day be made, based on chemicals in orchids to which mosquitoes are attracted and repelled.

Scientists at Australia's Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) have genetically engineered the first breed of mosquitoes with resistance to all four serotypes of dengue fever.

It's definitely annoying when you're trying to swat a mosquito that's flying around a room, but you lose track of where it is. Bzigo is designed to help, as it optically-tracks mozzies and then highlights them with an eye-safe laser.

Genetic studies of the West African mosquitoes Anopheles gambiae and Anopheles coluzzii show that binding proteins on the insects' legs help them to avoid bed nets that have been treated with mosquito-killing chemicals.

Not only do bed nets help protect people against mosquitoes, but if those nets are treated with an insecticide, they also kill insects that touch them. A simple new technology could make such nets more lethal to mosquitoes, yet also safer for humans.

Despite a published study saying different, Oxitec and experts argue that a genetically-modified mosquito release program in Brazil was safe after all.