Control of Mosquito Larvae by Bacteria

Abstract

Mosquitos cause of the human disease. In the past, to control mosquito often uses chemical insecticides that eliminated mosquito rapidly. However, these chemicals have affected to human and environment. Therefore, biological insecticides have been developed by using bacterium that produced crystal protein toxins specifically to mosquito larvae and have no affect to non-target species. The crystal protein toxins will dissolve in the alkaline condition of mosquito larvae guts and activated by gut protease. The active toxin will be released to kill mosquito larvae and have no affect to human. However, these bacteria still have limitation that they persist in the environment in short time and sensitivity to UV light and temperature. Development of protein production and protein structure should be considered in order to improve production level and toxicity of mosquito-larvicidal proteins.