Teresia Njoroge

• Postdoctoral researcher at Indiana University School of Medicine-South Bend

Spotted wing drosophila (SWD), Drosophila suzukii (Diptera: Drosophilidae), are invasive vinegar flies of East Asian origin that are an increasingly global threat to the small fruit industry. It is essential that new classes of eco-friendly insecticides and cost-effective strategies for SWD control are developed. Here, we describe the preparation o...

Background: Drosophila suzukii, or spotted-wing drosophila (SWD), (Diptera: Drosophilidae), are invasive vinegar flies of East Asian origin that have wreaked havoc on the small fruit and berry industry. In locations where SWD are well established, weekly chemical insecticide applications are necessary, resulting in increased economic costs, unwante...

Container aquatic habitats host a community of aquatic insects, primarily mosquito larvae that browse on container surface microbial biofilm and filter-feed on microorganisms in the water column. We examined how the bacterial communities in these habitats respond to feeding by larvae of two container-dwelling mosquito species, Culex pipiens and Cx....

G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs), which regulate numerous intracellular signaling cascades that mediate many essential physiological processes, are attractive yet underexploited insecticide targets. RNA interference (RNAi) technology could facilitate the custom design of environmentally safe pesticides that target GPCRs in select target pests ye...

Simple Summary Mosquito-borne infectious diseases threaten millions of people worldwide, and it is critical that we identify new methods for controlling these insects. We recently developed a new class of mosquito insecticides that consists of yeasts which produce interfering RNA that is custom-designed to turn off mosquito genes yet does not hurt...

Several emerging mosquito control technologies require mass releases of adult male mosquitoes. Previous studies resulted in the generation of a laboratory female-specific larvicidal yeast strain targeting the GGT gene, which facilitated the laboratory sex separation of male Culex quinquefasciatus mosquitoes. Global deployment of this yeast-based se...

The global deployment of RNAi yeast insecticides involves transitioning from the use of laboratory yeast strains to more robust strains that are suitable for scaled fermentation. In this investigation, the RNA-guided Cas-CLOVER system was used in combination with Piggybac transposase to produce robust Saccharomyces cerevisiae strains with multiple...

Simple Summary Current mosquito control efforts are insufficient for preventing mosquito-borne illnesses. Attractive targeted sugar bait (ATSB) technology is an emerging mosquito control method that involves luring mosquitoes to feed on a sugar suspension containing a poison. Here, we comprehensively review the existing literature to evaluate the p...

During nectar feeding, mosquitoes ingest a plethora of phytochemicals present in nectar. The ecological and physiological impacts of these ingested phytochemicals on the disease vectors are poorly understood. In this study, we evaluated the effects of three nectar phytochemicals-- caffeine, p-coumaric acid, and quercetin--on longevity, fecundity, a...

Background The guts of blood-sucking insects host a community of bacteria that can shift dramatically in response to biotic and abiotic factors. Identifying the key factors structuring these microbial communities has important ecological and epidemiological implications. Methods We used the yellow fever mosquito, Aedes aegypti , to investigate the...

Although blood-feeding behavior in female mosquitoes, required both for reproduction and transmission of disease pathogens, has been extensively studied, plant-feeding is an essential element in the life histories of most mosquito species. For these species, adults of both sexes seek out and depend on floral nectar. Moreover, the larvae of the majo...

The yellow fever mosquito, Aedes aegypti (Diptera: Culicidae) transmits several devastating arboviruses, including dengue, chikungunya, and Zika virus, making development of inexpensive and eco-friendly strategies for its control an urgent priority. We evaluated the lethality of 13 commonly used plant-derived edible oils against late-third instar A...

Using a case study, this chapter illustrates how indigenous knowledge-and particularly female knowledge systems-can intersect with technology to disclose the limits of the conventional binary discourse of knowledge as either scientific or indigenous. Data here are drawn from research on legume market women in Ghana, who watched linguistically local...