Washington, May 8(ANI): A new Baylor study suggests that female mosquitoes have the ability to sense if larvae have been laid successfully at a place earlier. They then choose the same place to lay their eggs.
According to Dr. Richard Duhrkopf, associate professor of biology at Baylor, once a safe site is found the number of eggs laid may be three times more than the last time. This also indicates that female mosquitoes can detect metabolic by-products of larvae.
Duhrkopf and his team created five separate water-based solutions where the mosquitoes could choose to lay their eggs, one of which was collected from a backyard where the water contained the mosquito larvae.
The results show that the ‘back yard’ water solutions significantly attracted more females and more eggs per positive trap. The back yard water solutions had 1,808 eggs on them versus the next highest one, deionized water, which had only 799.
The results were presented at the South Central Regional Mosquito Control Conference. (ANI)