When summer comes, one of our common problems is mosquitoes. Especially in the evening, when we turn on a light, no one likes the mosquitoes that gather around us, and so do scientists. This is quite understandable, especially when we consider that the creature that causes the most human deaths is the mosquito.
Scientists from the University of California have discovered a method that will freeze disease-carrying mosquitoes at puberty, preventing them from reproducing or becoming adults. More importantly, this method will not directly affect other living things.
Insecticide for mosquitoes
The head of the research, Naoki Yamanaka, discovered in 2018 an important steroid hormone that allows carrier proteins to move between the cells of fruit flies. This structure, called ecdysone, also called the melting hormone, is of great importance in flies. Because in the absence of ecdysone, flies cannot grow or reproduce.
Although ecdysone may have an important role in the life cycle of any insect, a mosquito-specific case was discovered by Yamanaka and his team’s investigations. According to this, there are only 3 of the 4 different ecdysone structures found in fruit flies and other insects. This will allow new pesticides to be developed in the future to directly target mosquitoes.
When we look at the species examined in the study, the drug to be developed at the end of this study will not harm the bees or the species that help pollination and pollination. On the other hand, mosquitoes that carry diseases such as Zika, yellow fever, dengue fever will be adversely affected by the drug.
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