New Study Improves Sterile Insect Technique for Mosquitoes
Researchers in Florida find that male Aedes aegypti mosquitoes live longer when irradiated as adults rather than pupae, an important advance in protocols for deploying the sterile insect technique to manage wild populations of disease-transmitting mosquitoes.
Why the Connections Between Cells Could be New Targets for Managing Insect Pests
The channels that link insect cells, known as gap junctions, control a wide array of biological functions. Biologists are exploring gap junctions as potential targets for new insecticides, and a new review in Annals of the Entomological Society of America examines existing knowledge and future directions for this line of research.
New Study Pegs Yellow Fever Mosquito’s Average Flight Range at 106 Meters
A new meta-analysis indicates that the yellow fever mosquito (Aedes aegypti) travels an average distance of 106 meters in mark-release-recapture studies, a figure that could play an important role in mosquito-management efforts.
Male Mosquitoes Don’t Want Your Blood, But They Still Find You Very Attractive
A new study shows that male mosquitoes hover near humans but tend not to land or bite—a behavior researchers suspect is a tactic for finding female mates.