Mosquito Control, Killing off the Females

In addition to causing discomfort, female mosquitoes introduce disease-carrying viruses and bacteria into the bloodstream of their victims. There are numerous publications describing the uses of sugary mosquito baits with promising results. Without temperature control measures however, these methods are mainly useful for only nectar-feeding insects, including male mosquitoes, because the warmth of the blood is a condition for the females to locate their meals. The efforts required to keep the baits fresh against the natural spoiling process make them less attractive or impractical to implement. These experiments address these issues by using warm baits of water, sugar, boric acid, and antibiotics. Overnight, the general areas became clear of blood-sucking female mosquitoes while in numbers, the harmless males concentrated into the immediate vicinities. Control vs. experiment protocol established no other logical explanation for this phenomenon other than that females were attracted and killed by the bait. As expected, there was no female mosquito’s activity in these areas. There weren’t many left to do the work.