Female-Specific Larval Lethality in the Yellow Fever Mosquito Aedes aegypti

Abstract

The mosquito, Aedes aegypti, is the primary vector of dengue, yellow fever, and Zika viruses. Dengue alone threatens
over 390 million people worldwide, causing over 300,000 deaths annually. Chemical pesticides are the main method of disease
suppression, but new, environmentally friendly methods of mosquito control are needed. The Sterile Insect Technique (SIT) is
a pesticide-free method of locally controlling pest insects by releasing large numbers of sterile males, to out-compete wild males
for female mates. For this method to work effectively, few or no females should be released with sterile males as sterile females
can still spread diseases. Thus, efficient sex-sorting is needed, and to date, no large-scale sex-sorting methods for mosquitoes
have been sufficiently effective for use in sterile insect technique.