A Swedish company says it's perfected a new way to get rid of disease-carrying mosquitoes by tricking them into drinking poisoned juice.
Researchers with the start-up Molecular Attraction isolated a molecule known as HMBPP, which is present in blood infected with the malaria parasite.
HMBPP releases a smell that attracts mosquitoes and stimulates them to drink more blood.
'It turns out that HMBPP can force mosquitoes to drink almost anything, as long as the pH is right,' Molecular Attraction CEO Lech Ignatowicz told Fast Company.
The researchers tempted mosquitoes with a potent combination of beet juice mixed with HMBPP and plant-based toxins.
The mosquitoes happily fed on the faux blood and all died shortly after.
'The big advantage is that HMBPP doesn't attract other insects or other species,' Ignatowicz told the outlet. 'So you can use it as a passive way of convincing mosquitoes to eat toxins.'
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HMBPP, a molecule present in blood infected with the malaria parasite, releases a smell that makes it more attractive to mosquitoes. Scientists in Sweden have been able to add HMBPP to a deadly mixture of beet juice and plant toxins, killing all the mosquitoes that drank it
Since HMBPP actually attracts mosquitoes, far less of it is needed than the more harmful pesticides that are sprayed over entire neighborhoods.
'Nowadays, the biggest problem in mosquito control lies in the task of attracting them to the traps,' the company said in a statement on its website.
'This unique composition is attractive exclusively to the 5 Anopheles species of mosquitoes, which are the exclusive vectors of the malaria parasite.'
Other attractant products either need an electrical source or spread carbon dioxide, the company said, 'which disrupts the surrounding biosphere.'
While Molecular Attraction is eager to market the bug-killer, it's determined to make it 'accessible and affordable,' according to Ignatowicz, so that it can help vulnerable countries.
The HMBPP molecule was added to tainted beets (pictured) but Molecular Attraction CEO Lech Ignatowicz said HMBPP 'can force mosquitoes to drink almost anything, as long as the pH is right'
Ignatowicz told Fast Company the concoction isn't
