This new fungus may solve your mosquito problem

Scientists have found a new solution that lures mosquitoes to death

- JASON P. DINH

WATCH YOUR BACK, DEET. There’s a new form of mosquito control in town — one that involves olfactory trickery, genetic engineering and a deadly infectious fungus.

Researchers reported last week in the journal Nature Microbiology that Metarhizium — a fungus already used to control pests — can be genetically engineered to produce so much of a sweet-smelling substance that it is virtually irresistible to mosquitoes. When they laced traps with those fungi, 90% to 100% of mosquitoes were killed in lab experiments. The scientists say this may provide an affordable, scalable and more ecologically friendly way to quell the bloodsucking insects.

“This work is cool in that it puts together a classic biological control idea with a more modern high-tech approach,” said Noah Rose, a biologist who studies mosquito-borne disease transmission at the University of California San Diego, who wasn’t involved in the study.“They show that this kind of idea might have legs.”