According to a study published Thursday in Nature, mosquitos can learn to avoid pesticides after a single exposure, which is an overlooked challenge in fighting the spread of diseases and parasites.
The body of a female mosquito fills up as she sucks blood from a photographer's hand.
The Culex quinquefasciastus and Aedes aegypti are mosquito species that are common in tropical and subtropical areas around the world.
Researchers said that mosquitoes learned to associate the smell of pesticide with the negative effects of pesticide contact and were willing to forgo blood-feeding to avoid landing in an area that smelled of pesticide.
Aedes aegypti mosquitoes conditioned to avoid pesticide were three times more likely than unconditioned mosquitoes to survive an experiment in which they were offered a chance to fly across pesticide-treated nets to feed on blood.
mothers have their children weighed and tested for Malaria at a clinic
Mosquitoes have become more resistant to pesticides in the last few years, and researchers found that mosquito cognitive was an overlooked factor. Frederic Tripet, director of the Centre for Applied Entomology and Parasitology at Keele University, said that new pesticide solutions could be developed with a delayed reaction, so that a mosquito that survives exposure will not learn to associate the smell of the pesticide with the negative experience. Adding an attractive smell to a pesticide could disrupt mosquito learning. According to the World Health Organization, about 241 million people were affected by Malaria in 2020 and mosquitoes are responsible for spreading it. Malaria is the leading cause of death in sub-Saharan Africa, accounting for about 98% of the deaths in 2020, according to the WHO. The majority of deaths in the region were among children under 5. The first malaria vaccine was endorsed by the WHO in October.
627,000. About 69,000 people died of malaria in the year 2020 according to the WHO. Over 47,000 deaths were linked to healthcare disruptions.
"Mosquitoes have been learning," Tripet told ABC.
The World Health Organization supports widespread use of the first Malaria vaccine.
What would happen if we eliminated the world's mosquitoes?
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