Mosquito Extinction
An old weapon in the war on mosquitoes
Mosquito-borne diseases involve the transmission of viruses and parasites from animal-to-animal, animal-to-person, or person-to-person, without afflicting the insect vectors with symptoms of the disease.
Mosquitoes are estimated to transmit disease to more than 700 million people annually in Africa, South America, Central America, Mexico and much of Asia, with millions of resulting deaths.
In every country that has mosquito lava in the water, there is also a local small fish that is specialised in eating the mosquito lava. Mosquitoes are not exterminated by these fish because the fish deliberately leave some mosquito lava alive in order that they can breed. So we have a potential biological control method for mosquitoes, if we can improve the kill rates. In reality this is simple, we just breed the fish in captivity, and then swamp areas
with mosquito problems with them. Because there is massive overkill,we can clear whole areas of the problem. We have to have blanket coverage of every source of water, from rivers, down to puddles in order for extinction to occur.
At the moment, the local fish is not always used, the Mosquitofish is one such example. Although Mosquitofish are considered one of the best forms of mosquito control, they can actually cause damage to the environment if not handled properly. When Mosquitofish consume large amounts of mosquito larvae, it creates competition for other fish that also eat mosquitoes. The Mosquitofish comes out on top because they can out-compete their competitors. Mosquitofish are also known to be aggressive and attack other small fish. This can create a negative impact on small fish populations. Nevertheless, a lot of people consider the benefit of killing mosquitoes is greater than the damage the Mosquitofish can cause. For example, these fish have eradicated malaria in several places such as Russia, South America, and the Ukraine. The name "Mosquitofish" was given becausethediet of this fish predominantly consists of large amounts ofmosquito larvae (as well as other invertebrate larvae); an adult female can consume hundreds in a day. Hardy to a variety of temperatures, salinities and oxygen levels, Mosquitofish have spread through many parts of the world in introductions attempting to reduce mosquito populations. Although this biocontrol did play a major role in containing malaria in the 1920s, they are now recognized the Global Invasive Species Database as one of the world's 100 worst invasive species. This voracious, aggressive predator has extirpated and eliminated many native species, is extremely hard to eradicate, and is now a pest in fresh and brackish waters around the world. (Thus local mosquito eating fish are the logical answer.) However, several counties in California, for example,distribute Mosquitofish at no charge to residents with man-made fishponds and pools as part of their Mosquito Abatement programs. The fish are made available to residents only, and are to be used only on their own property, not introduced into natural habitat.
Another fish used in mosquito control is the guppy; Poecilia reticulatahas been used for biological mosquito control since World War I. Ithas been introduced almost all over the world from the areas oftropical South America to which it is native. In many areas, the guppy has provided good control of mosquitoes in highly polluted
sources, such as sewage pools, dairy lagoons, chicken ranch ditches and slightly acidic sources. Unlike the mosquitofish, the guppy's ability to reproduce or control mosquitoes is not reduced by low levels of dissolved oxygen.
How To Avoid Mosquitoes
Many years ago there was an article in “New Scientist” magazine that said that flies avoided the dead bodies of other flies. I have used this fact several times over the years and find that it holds true. All you have to do is kill a few flies, cut their bodies into three, and put the body parts on window sills and at doors in order to avoid them flying in. A refugee camp once surrounded it's border with dead flies in order to avoid these disease carriers. My point is, this also works with mosquitoes, and is a free way of avoiding malaria, not only can property be protected in this way, but so can the individual when easily killed mosquito corpses are kept in pockets. If scientists could find the chemical given off by the dead body of a mosquito that repels others then we could have a an effective mosquito spray on our hands. (This will not work with wasps).
The Against Malaria Foundation
http://cartridges4charity.co.uk/ink-cartridge-recycling/# are recycling printer cartridges, toner cartridges, and mobile phones, and purchase mosquito nets with them using the “The Against Malaria Foundation.” They can accept used and unused cartridges and mobile phones from the UK and unused cartridges from the US.