No Evidence That Salt Water Ingestion Kills Adult Mosquitoes (Diptera: Culicidae)

Abstract

Various products and insecticides are available that purport to reduce wild populations of adult mosquitoes. Recently, several manufacturers and general public comments on the internet have promoted devices that claim that ingestion of salt will significantly reduce populations of wild mosquitoes to near zero; there are no known scientific efficacy data that support these claims. We tested the survival of nine mosquito species of pest and public health importance across four adult diets: Water Only, Sugar Water Only (8.00%), Salt Water Only (1.03%), and Sugar + Salt Water. Species included the following: Aedes aegypti (L.), Aedes albopictus (Skuse), Aedes dorsalis (Meigen), Aedes notoscriptus (Skuse), Aedes vigilax (Skuse), Anopheles quadrimaculatus (Say), Culex pipiens (L.), Culex quinquefasciatus (Say), and Culex tarsalis (Coquillett). Male and female mosquitoes were placed in cages and allowed to feed on liquid diets under controlled environmental conditions for 1 wk. For seven of the nine species, adult survival was significantly higher in the presence (Sugar Water, Sugar + Salt Water) versus the absence (Water Only, Salt Only) of sugar, with no indication that salt had any effect on survival. Anopheles quadrimaculatus showed intermediate survival in Sugar + Salt to either Sugar Only or no sugar diets, whereas Aedes dorsalis showed low survival in Salt Only versus other diets. Based on our data and coupled with the fact that mosquitoes have physiological and behavioral adaptations that allow them to avoid or process excess salt (as found in blood meals), we conclude that there is no scientific foundation for salt-based control methods of mosquitoes.

Presence and Abundance of Malaria Vector Species in Miami-Dade County, Florida

“…Anopheles crucians and An. quadrimaculatus have a high tolerance to brackish water and other environmental conditions that are otherwise detrimental to other mosquito species [34,35]. Our spatial analysis reveals the existence of highly conducive environments, characterized by an overabundance of resources supporting the proliferation of An.…”

Laboratory evaluation of sugar alcohols for control of mosquitoes and other medically important flies

“…Trials with ATSB have demonstrated great success in reducing mosquitoes in a number of different laboratory, semi-field, and field trials 16 , 17 , 24 . Numerous active ingredients have been evaluated in conjunction with ATSB, from conventional pesticides and mosquito adulticides to ingredients exempt from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) pesticide regulations 25 . These exempt products, mostly different botanical oils such as garlic oil 26 , offer a major advantage over more traditional pesticides because they are not required to undergo the customary regulatory process to acquire EPA approval, which can be long and expensive.…”