Why Researchers Can't Control Mosquitoes

ByABC News
August 15, 2001, 2:45 PM

Aug. 16 -- We had barely stepped out of our car in Canada's northern Yukon Territory when the siege began. Dark clouds descended out of nowhere as seemingly zillions of mosquitoes dove in for the kill.

Over the next two weeks, as we tried to enjoy our vacation, these monstrous little critters plunged their sharp needles into our bodies, sucking out our blood, defying every effort to chase them away. It seemed like our usually effective bug repellants were attracting them instead. They ate through our clothes, leaving welts across my wife's back (they found her more tasty than me) and more than once our only defense was to pack up and leave our campsite.

The situation bugged me, so to speak, so much that I decided to find out if we are anywhere near winning the war against mosquitoes. One expert after another answered my question essentially the same way.

In a word, the answer is no.

We're winning a few skirmishes, and there is some progress to be reported, but the war is definitely not in our favor.

Mosquitoes Have the Numbers and Advantages

"Mosquitoes will probably be here a long time after we are all gone," says biologist Douglas Carlson of the American Mosquito Control Association.

"I don't think we're even close to eradicating or removing mosquitoes from our environment," adds Donald R. Barnard, who heads the mosquito unit at the U.S. Agricultural Research Service's Center for Medical, Agricultural and Veterinary Entomology in Gainesville, Fla.

There are around 3,000 mosquito species around the world, about four or five dozen of which are of concern to humans because they can transmit serious diseases. Female mosquitoes need blood (males don't bite) to produce their eggs, so they are annoying as well as potentially deadly.

They have proven to be so adaptable to changing environments that they've "pretty much handled everything we've thrown at them," says Barnard, whose lab none-the-less has made some progress.

There are several factors that tilt the playing field in the mosquito's favor. There's relatively little money to be made in producing chemicals that can kill mosquitoes so major chemical companies are reluctant to make the kind of investment that could lead to success. And mosquitoes tend to settle and reproduce in environmentally sensitive areas, making it much more difficult to kill them off without seriously damaging the environment.