Encouraging Mosquitoes to Breed in Controlled Environments to Use them as a Sustainable Protein Source for Aquaculture

This study aimed to identify the most effective method of producing mosquito larvae as a protein source for aquatic animals. Four attractants were tested for their ability to encourage mosquito egg-laying: aquaculture wastewater (carbon/nitrogen ratio of 10); lettuce-incubated water; mung bean sprout–incubated water; and sugarcane bagasse–incubated water. After overnight incubation to stimulate bacterial growth, the containers were opened nightly to attract mosquitoes. The larvae collected were reared under four feeding treatments: baker’s yeast; rice bran; fish meal; and no feed (starvation). After six days, lettuce-incubated water showed the highest egg production (93.5 egg rafts), followed by mung bean sprout–incubated water (49 egg rafts), aquaculture wastewater (37.5 egg rafts), and sugarcane bagasse–incubated water (1 egg raft). Newly hatched larvae measured approximately 0.57mm. After five days of feeding, larval length ranged from 2.26 (starvation) to 6.17mm (fish feed), although the survival rate of the fish-feed group (46%) was lower than those of the rice-bran (74.4%) and yeast (66%) groups. These results show that lettuce juice is the most effective attractant for egg-laying, and rice bran offers a good balance between growth and survival, supporting its potential use in large-scale mosquito larvae production for aquatic animal feed