Q.Explain the biological control of mosquitoes as a method of malaria control.

[!TLDR] Biological control uses living organisms, such as larvivorous fish, to destroy mosquito larvae.

Biological control of mosquitoes uses natural predators, such as larvivorous fish (e.g. Gambusia) introduced into stagnant water bodies, to eat mosquito larvae, alongside biological larvicides, as an environmentally safer alternative to chemical insecticides in malaria control. …

Since Plasmodium transmission depends entirely on the Anopheles mosquito, malaria control programmes target the mosquito at every stage of its life cycle, and biological control specifically focuses on the aquatic larval stage, which develops in stagnant water. This method introduces living natural predators of mosquito larvae into breeding sites such as ponds, ditches and stagnant pools; the most widely used example is the larvivorous fish, such as Gambusia, which actively feeds on mosquito larvae and can substantially reduce their numbers in a water body. Biological larvicides — naturally derived agents that specifically kill mosquito larvae without broadly poisoning the wider environment — are also used in this approach. Biological control is valued as an environmentally safer alternative or a useful supplement to chemical insecticide spraying, since it avoids many of the ecological side effects (harm to non-target species, development of insecticide resistance) associated with heavy, repeated chemical spraying, wh …

• Confusing biological control with chemical insecticide spraying — biological control specifically uses living organisms/biological agents, not chemicals. …