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Insecticidal Activity of Recent Bacterial Isolates and their Toxins against Mosquito Larvae

Abstract

ALTHOUGH Bacillus thuringiensis is proving to be a useful pathogen against insect pests of field crops1–3, there has been no equivalent bacterium that might be used in the control of insects, such as mosquitoes, that carry disease. Since 1966, however, the World Health Organization (WHO) has been seeking such a bacterium. Field workers in various parts of the world collect infected insects4 and send them to an International Reference Center (IRC) at Ohio State University. Here the causative agent of infection is investigated and material is distributed for research on potential control organisms. I have examined bacteria isolated from infected larval mosquitoes collected in Delhi, India (accession WHO/ IRC No. 1321); those of the Bacillus sphaericus group had higher insecticidal activity than previously reported5, and those of the Bacillus alvei-circulans group had never before been implicated in disease of mosquito larvae. Either or both may eventually be useful in the biological control of mosquitoes.

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SINGER, S. Insecticidal Activity of Recent Bacterial Isolates and their Toxins against Mosquito Larvae. Nature 244, 110–111 (1973). https://doi.org/10.1038/244110a0

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