A new weapon in the war against malaria-carrying mosquitoes has arrived just in time for summer. Researchers from the University of Maryland and the Research Institute of Health Sciences in Burkina Faso have figured out a way to genetically alter a fungus to produce deadly spider venom that kills mosquitoes dead. “We are using a gene encoding a single toxin, one of the many toxins in spider venom,” Dr. Raymond St. Leger of UMD Entomology told Fox News. Some critics have noted that genetically engineering a fungus is a bad idea, as it could have unpredictable ripple effects in nature. Swatting these criticisms away, Dr. Leger responds: “The fungus will be used to target mosquitoes that come into homes [and] these don’t really have many friends.

Source: Fox News June 10, 2019 12:44 UTC