Dealing with the Tiger Problem in Valencia

You don’t come across much unpleasant fauna in Valencia, but due to the large amount of water surrounding the city, the tiger mosquito is becoming increasingly a problem.

This tropical insect has been making inroads into Europe over past decades and is more aggressive than the traditional mosquito.

Fortunately five Valencian scientists have set to work and come up with a device that could help resolve this problem.

The techniques, developed by Tragsa in Moncada, consist of releasing sterilised males into the environment to prevent reproduction.

Laser techniques would be used to eliminate females (the ones that sting people), thus reducing the population drastically.

The five scientists, Nacho Pla, Carles Tur, David Almenar, Gustavo Salvador and Mario Zacarés developed a method to increase the efficiency of separating males and females, crucial to the process; reducing the failure rate to 0.03%, compared to the previous 6%.

The method deals with the problem biologically without harming the environment.