Mosquito's lust for sugar can fight malaria-study

JERUSALEM, Sep 20 (Reuters) Mosquitoes' thirst for sugar could help kill the pests and eradicate the malaria they spread, scientists in Israel said.

Yosef Schlein and Gunter Muller of Jerusalem's Hebrew University said yesterday they wiped out virtually the entire mosquito population of a southern Israeli oasis by spraying a sugar solution mixed with ''Spinosad'' insecticide on acacia trees.

''The mosquitoes are about 30 times more attracted to the acacia than other plant life,'' Schlein said, explaining why that particular tree was chosen.

Acacias are also common in Africa, where malaria has been on the rise due to environmental changes, drug resistance and mosquito resistance to conventional insecticides, according to the researchers' study published in scientific journals.

Other blossoms in areas where acacia trees are not common could also be sprayed with a sugar solution and Spinosad, described in the study as safer than microbial and chemical insecticides currently used against mosquitoes.

The planting of mosquito-attracting ''floral centres'' could provide a ''relatively easy and cheap method that in suitable regions can supplement the limited arsenal against mosquitoes'', the researchers wrote.

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