Human Swallows Pill. Mosquito Bites Human. Mosquito Dies.

Medical researchers have discovered that an inexpensive deworming pill that has been used in Africa for more than 25 years can kill mosquitoes. The medicine, known as ivermectin, is effective for only a month. So it's necessary for everyone in a region to take it at the same time. But when administered that way, the incidence of malaria can drop by 80%:

They vacuumed mosquitoes from the walls of huts in three villages whose inhabitants had recently been given ivermectin and three whose had not, and tested to see how many mosquitoes contained malaria parasites.

The ivermectin villages had almost 80 percent fewer.

The drug was shortening the mosquitoes’ lives, explained the lead author, Brian D. Foy, a Colorado State mosquito expert. Only older insects transmit malaria, since they must get it from humans first.

Link -via Glenn Reynolds | Photo by Flickr user wild_turkey5300 used under Creative Commons license

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My father was one of the very first researchers to work on the *vermectin drugs. He published an article in 1979 regarding avermectin. Makes me proud. He was in animal research for most of his career - parasitology. And yes, ivermectin is more often used for animals.

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Thank you for pointing out the FULL argument, JonF. It's amazing how susceptible people are to a "good thing" without looking at the whole picture.

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I should point out here that ivermectin is not a completely benign drug; it does have some pretty nasty side-effects if taken chronically or in high dose. This is why it's almost exclusively used for veterinary care in North America and Europe and only given to folks in areas where parasitic worm infection represents a serious concern. It's a good drug for what it does, but unless you're going to a part of the world where mosquito-borne diseases are prominent (in which case you'd probably be prescribed it anyway) I would stick with the bug spray.