Mosquito-killing fungi could help control malaria

Two international research groups conducted trials to determine the potential of developing fungal agents to kill mosquitoes as a way to control malaria in areas such as Africa. The first group placed mosquitoes that had taken a blood meal from a rodent model into cardboard pots sprayed with a formulation of Beauveria bassiana in oil for six hours. The experiment reduced the number of mosquitoes able to transmit malaria by a factor of about 80. The second group tested the Metarhizium anisopliae fungus in huts in a village in Tanzania. About 23% of the mosquitoes collected alive in the treated huts over a week period were infected by the fungus, and most died in less than four days.