Mosquito foot, covered with perlite
Volcanic glass, perlite is used mainly as nutritional supplements for fertilization or create insulation for buildings. Scientists at the University of North Carolina and the Liverpool school of tropical medicine found a new use for it, developed on its basis an effective tool against malarial mosquitoes – Imergard WP.
It is a spray consisting of water and powder of perlite. The reason for the interest in new compounds that currently used protivostoyanie insecticides are very toxic and cause harm, as the natural environment and people.
A new tool was tested on four groups of huts in the Republic of Benin in West Africa. Wall one group of huts were treated Imergard WP, another common insecticide by piretroids and the third a combination of the two means. The fourth group of huts was a control, it was not processed.
As a result, scientists have discovered that the walls of the huts immediately after processing Imergard WP and its mixture with piretroids killed the largest number of vectors of malaria, Anopheles gambiae. And even six months after treatment, the mortality rate of mosquitoes on the walls of the huts with Imergard WP remained at 78 %, at the same time, on walls treated with pyrethroides, it fell to 25 %.
According to scientists, the reason for the effectiveness Imergard WP in the fact that the particles of perlite, settling on insects violate the protective properties of the lipid layer on their outer epidermis. As a result, the mosquitoes just shrivel up and die from dehydration.
Other important advantages Imergard WP – ecological safety and low production costs.
Source — North Carolina State University.