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# Buzz kill
- URL: https://www.redeyebr.com/damn-dem-skeeters/
- Published: 2025-11-04T16:41:59.000Z
- Updated: 2026-03-10T01:13:05.000Z
- Description: New technology uses a delicious way to kill mosquitoes.
- Author: Mukul Verma
- Tags: News, Last Call

It's spring-like; the mosquitoes in Baton Rouge are hangry. But a genetically engineered fungus may soon outsmart them — not by repelling them, but by luring them to their deaths, reports the [New York Times](https://www.nytimes.com/2025/11/01/science/fungus-mosquitoes-genetic-engineering.html?ref=redeyebr.com).  
  
**Why it matters:** Mosquitoes kill more people than any other creature by spreading diseases. About 600,000 people die annually from malaria alone, with children under 5 accounting for 75% of those deaths, per the World Health Organization. 

**How it works:**

- Researchers modified *Metarhizium*, a pest-control fungus, to constantly emit longifolene, a sweet, woodsy scent that mosquitoes find irresistible.
- The fungus was originally designed to kill insects after contact. It now lures them too. Once mosquitoes approach, the fungal spores invade and consume them from the inside.
- In labs, traps coated with the modified fungi killed 90–100% of mosquitoes — even when human volunteers slept nearby as bait.

**What’s next:** Field tests will begin soon using a patented trap that targets only mosquitoes. Scientists have also deployed genetically-engineered sterile mosquitoes into controlled areas; when the mosquitoes mate with females, the young ones can't reproduce. 

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