Mosquito Assassin

The Toxo, world’s largest mosquito but not a blood sucker. Photo by =Cas=.

Toxorhynchites (I call them Toxo) seem to be the mosquito equivalent of Karuna, turning on the LTTE. For alternate references see, Benedict Arnold, Ephialtes, or Donnie Brasco. Basically, a traitor mosquito. Basically, the Toxo mosquito doesn’t feed on blood, they feed on nectar and their larvae feeds on other mosquitos.

It is interesting to note that the blood-sucking mosquitoes are all female. All male mosquitoes live like the Toxo, subsisting off honeydew and garbage and flowers and stuff. Females get into high-risk blood sucking because it gives them an energy source to produce more and better offspring. Toxos seem to get that energy kick off an energy rich larval diet of other mosquito larvae.

I have long wondered why I can’t give mosquitoes dengue or something. Like, couldn’t we put something in our blood that makes them explode. That, of course, is dumb. In response to a similar tweet, arosha pointed me to the Toxorhnchies (literally, arrow snout). This is a species which can reduce the blood-sucking mosquito population, basically by eating their larvae. I’m cautiously in favor of dumping a bunch of Toxo larva into the Dehiwela canal.

7 Comments

  1. Bringing in non-native species to Sri Lanka is a recipe for disaster.

  2. Toxorhynchites are native to Sri Lanka, and most tropical climates. If you Google it there’s a lot of info, include good study on their affect on mosquito larvae. In Matale, if you’re wondering.

  4. If they are native it’s ok but if they are not, then a lot of research needs to be done before they are imported. Sri Lanka doesn’t seem to have any border protection against foreign species (plant/animal) that could destroy wildlife and agriculture in Sri Lanka. Anyone can bring in plants and seeds at anytime and no doubt smuggle in animals as well. Countries like NZ, Aus, US have strict rules about what people can and cannot bring into the country and they are pretty stringent with them.

  6. I have not got around to experimenting with this as yet. Please let me/us know if you do. Dont need to hunt far and wide for boric acid. Keels/Cargills has an ant powder (Think LKR 150) which is pretty much boric acid/powder. Otherwise go to Bankshall Street (Bangasala Vidiya in Sinhal) in Pettah and you can buy pure Boric Acid/Borax powder.

    Apparently having weeds sprayed with a solution of the fermented juice of local guavas and melons mixed with dye and boric acid. Within a few days, they saw 90 percent die off of Mosquitoes.

    NY Times:Small Fixes: Brewing Up Double-Edged Delicacies for Mosquitoes

    Excerpts
    On what food do mosquitoes live? Orgiastic gouts of human blood that distend their abdomens and render them almost unable to move — right? Well, actually, no.

    To lay eggs, females do need blood for its iron and protein. But usually mosquitoes subsist on modest sips of nectar from flowers or from ripe or rotting fruit.

    …….
    They filled old soda bottles with a solution of brown sugar, the juice of rotting nectarines, Spinosad and a dye. They put each in a sock with a wick that helped keep the sock soaked with the colorful fatal elixir. They suspended a bait at the opening of each cistern.

    The scientists chose a rural road in Mali running past ponds where two aggressive mosquito species breed — Anopheles gambiae and Anopheles arabiensis. They sprayed weeds there with a solution of the fermented juice of local guavas and melons mixed with dye and boric acid.

    Within a few days, they saw 90 percent die off.

    Boric acid is much less expensive than Spinosad. It is also about as harmless to humans as table salt is. It is a chief ingredient in Silly Putty. Dr. Schlein said he had heard that some Malians sampled the alcoholic bait brew, with no ill effects.

    But it kills insects that eat it. It is common in cockroach control; when a thin layer is spread on floors, cockroaches take it in when they preen their feet.

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