Editor's note: This story is part of a series of online exclusives about natural phenomena and human endeavors we'd like to see come to an end. They are connected with the September 2010 special issue of Scientific American called "The End".

Mosquitoes that carry the Plasmodium parasite cause some 300 million cases of malaria every year, claiming one million lives. That's a lot of carnage generated by an insect smaller than a pinky fingernail—but if enterprising researchers have their way, their blood-thirsty assault won't continue much longer. Here are some of the most promising strategies for wiping out malaria-carrying mosquitoes:

• Zap 'em. This February, inventor Nathan Myhrvold of the investment firm Intellectual Ventures unveiled a Star Wars-inspired mosquito killer: a laser death ray. Myhrvold mounts LED lamps on a fence post and uses a sensor called a charge-coupled device to monitor the field of light they create. When a disturbance in the field indicates the presence of an insect, a nonlethal laser beam is fired to determine how quickly the insect's wings beat—a trait that reliably distinguishes one species from another. Only female, malaria-bearing mosquitoes get zapped with the powerful kill laser (their wings beat at a low frequency); other insects are allowed to escape unharmed. "This is the first example of a smart insecticide," Myhrvold says. "If you sprayed, you'd kill all kinds of bugs."
• Fight parasite with parasite. Scientists at Imperial College London have experimented with using microsporidian parasites to keep malaria-bearing mosquito populations in check. When adult mosquitoes are infected with these fungi, they live shorter lives and their larval offspring are less likely to survive, devastating populations over time. Because the parasites evolve in tandem with the mosquitoes, subtly changing their attack strategies in response to the mosquitoes' attempts to develop resistance over time, this method would continue to be effective even as mosquito populations evolve new defenses.
• Practice good breeding. Johns Hopkins University researchers have devised genetically modified mosquitoes that express a protein known as SM1, making them immune to the Plasmodium parasite. If these GM skeeters can outcompete their wild counterparts, malaria-bearing mosquitoes could find themselves a casualty of human-directed evolution.
• Attack on two fronts. When mosquitoes evolve resistance to commonly used chemical pesticides, pest-eradication gurus have to look elsewhere for solutions. One effective alternative is the fungus Beauveria bassiana. A 2009 study in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences indicates that although B. bassiana spores can kill malarial mosquitoes in their own right, the spores also make mosquito hosts more susceptible to death by pesticide application—a devastating one-two punch.

8 Comments

1. 1. JamesDavis 01:09 PM 8/19/10

   I like the laser one. That would be entertaining while you sit outside at night watching it kill those pesky things.

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2. 2. tichead 06:59 PM 8/19/10

   Smoke 'em with a ray gun. That is cool! I hope the moment of demise is very dramatic.
   
   The 'Beauveria bassiana' is another story. It attacks almost all flying and a lot of crawling insects, and being spread by contact, is particularly effective against colony insects, like bees, which already have enough problems.

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3. 3. frgough 11:10 AM 8/20/10

   DDT. Problem solved. Oh. Wait. That's right. Rachel Carson's junk science book still has people thinking DDT is the end of life on the planet.
   
   Environmentalism. Responsible for millions of dead children all over the world.

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4. 4. JOHNCWILLIS 04:14 PM 8/20/10

   Eradication could have devastating consequences:
   -- The food chain is permanently changed
   -- Possibly effecting myriad number of insects, animals and plants
   Improved breeding through genetic modification appears safer after a cursory examination
   
   The star wars concept is probably the safest from an environmental point of view:
   -- we only kill creatures that are nearby and thus a threat
   -- we don't effect the food chain

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5. 5. wxv6 04:25 PM 8/21/10

   
   There was a good article in nature about this a little bit ago:
   http://www.nature.com/news/2010/100721/full/466432a.html
   
   The Nature article notes that "females of some species need a meal of blood to get the proteins necessary to lay eggs." Why not add a gene for the synthesis of the necessary egg-laying protein to those mosquitoes that lack it. This may be easier said than done, if a mosquito nectar-only diet simply doesn't contain the proper elements for the protein's synthesis. But if feasible, then Mosquitoes won't have to feed on blood to lay eggs.
   
   Even if blood feeding is a genetically regulated behavior (i.e. instinct), then it would only take a few generations for that behavior to be selected out, since blood-feeding often results in squished mosquitoes, whereas the few that "choose" to lay eggs without feeding (but rather, with their new protein synthesis capability) would not risk getting swatted.
   
   This allows mosquitoes to continue their important duties in the ecosystem and liberates us blood reservoirs from their tyranny. Not only the malaria risk but also the nuisance of the itch.
   

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6. 6. ekeyme 09:49 PM 8/30/10

   Like the laser one too. & afraid of that the bio-chemo-sections may led to somewhat unknown ecodangers like the supper resistance

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7. 7. jstof 02:08 PM 9/21/10

   There are around 3500 known species of mosquito, yet less than 5% of those species are capable of transmitting any disease to humans. So, conspire to get rid of all mosquitoes? Uh, another bad idea.

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8. 8. jstof in reply to jstof 02:13 PM 9/21/10

   Sorry! I responded too quickly, without sufficient thoughtfulness. Yes, these could be helpful for controlling disease-bearing species.

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