Scientists give human diet pills to mosquitoes to keep them from biting

Almost all of us are victims of blood-hungry mosquito bothering, but scientists have figured out a way to keep those bugs at bay by giving them human diet pills.

Not only mosquitoes are bothersome, but also a cause of numerous terrible diseases even proving to be fatal. This issue has led to researchers making a discovery to feed them with human diet pills that will curb their appetites and keep them away from humans.

Researchers from Rockfeller University examined the Aedes Aegypti mosquito types, which are the primary spreader of dengue fever throughout South America, Africa and the Eastern United States.

You can actually teach mosquitoes to stop bothering you

Female mosquitoes of the species are driven to feed on human blood to acquire a protein they require to lay their eggs. However, the team found that giving the mosquitoes a saline solution consisting human diet drugs left them feeling full and without an appetite, just like how the drugs work in humans, explained Futurism.

The research published in the journal Cell describes that the diet pills work by suppressing the ‘Neuropeptide Y’ (NPY) receptors that are responsible for diet regulation in humans, and now mosquitoes apparently. By analyzing the pests’ NPY receptors, the team was able to identify which ones were affecting their diet. Hence, they could reproduce similar affects by interfering with those NPY receptors without even using the human diet drugs.

The study has great implications in future as this technique could be used to prevent diseases like malaria and Zika. Understanding the insects’ appetites can lessen the need for insecticides, which many insects are developing immunity to and have been tied to deaths of both birds and bees.

“We’re starting to run out of ideas for ways to deal with insects that spread diseases,” senior author, Leslie Vosshall told BBC, “and this is a completely new way to think about insect control.”