Inducing kidney failure may represent a new option for controlling mosquito populations, according to researchers from Vanderbilt University and Ohio State University.

Conventional insecticides cause death of males and females at all stages of mosquito development. In doing so they exert considerable selective pressure for the development of genetic resistance.

An experimental molecule inhibits kidney function in mosquitoes. By inhibiting kidney function in mosquitoes via Malpighian tubule failure, the limitations posed by pesticide resistance are largely negated.

The experimental inhibitor molecule, named VU041, targets the mosquito Anopheles gambiae, the leading vector for malaria, and Aedes aegypti, a mosquito that transmits Zika virus and other pathogens. A beneficial side-effect is that it reportedly doesn’t harm honeybees.

Blood meals ingested by these insects can double or triple their body weight, and also contain high potassium chloride concentrations that can be lethal if not quickly voided. The VU041stops urine production, so the mosquitoes can’t volume-regulate. As one of the researchers states, “in some cases they just pop.”