Tunku Naquiyuddin Ja'afar, son of the late 10th King of Malaysia, was recently in the Philippines to present his new organic pesticide called 'QuitiKill' that kills mosquito larvae, thus preventing the spread of dengue.
"Bill Gates has donated billions of dollars to create a vaccine for malaria. But that is a downstream solution. Our technology is upstream. We want to address the problem of mosquitoes at the larvae stage," he was quoted by local Philippine media as saying.
The website of his company EntoGenex Bio Technology (which he co-founded) says that it solely focuses on mosquito control and is pioneering the integrated mosquito management to combat mosquito transmitted diseases in Malaysia and worldwide.
QuitiKill is reportedly non-toxic and will not harm people, animals or even fish. It uses rice-husk as carrier and floating device for the formulation.
Mosquito larvae are killed in less than one hour from the moment of application, the company says.
"Its efficacy lasts for a month and continues to destroy the larvae that emerge from any eggs laid," the prince explained.
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Naquiyudin noted that QuitiKill uses a natural peptide hormone that stops protein digestion in mosquito larvae, causing metabolic starvation and larval death.
"The larvae eventually dies from indigestion and starvation," he was quoted as saying.