The team from the University of California, Irvine studied Aedes aegypti mosquitoes, which spread viruses to around 400 million people a year.
They closely observed the insects’ aerial mating habits – that can last between a few seconds to just under a minute – and then figured out how to disrupt it using genetics.
They targeted a protein called trpVa that appears to be essential for hearing.
In the mutated mosquitoes, neurons normally involved in detecting sound showed no response to the flight tones or wingbeats of potential mates.
The alluring noise fell on deaf ears.
In contrast, wild (non-mutant) males were quick to copulate, multiple times, and fertilised nearly all the females in their cage.
The researchers from the University of California, Santa Barbara, who have published their work in the journal PNAS, said the effect of the gene knock-out was “absolute”, as mating by deaf males was entirely eliminated.
Dr Joerg Albert, from the University of Oldenburg in Germany, is an expert on mosquito mating and I asked him what he made of the research.
He said attacking sense of sound was a promising route for mosquito control, but it needed to be studied and managed.
“The study provides a first direct molecular test, which suggests that hearing is indeed not only important for mosquito reproduction but essential.
“Without the ability of males to hear – and acoustically chase – female mosquitoes might become extinct.”
Another method being explored is releasing sterile males in areas where there are pockets of mosquito-spread diseases, he added.
Although mosquitoes can carry diseases, they are an important part of the food chain – as nourishment for fish, birds, bats and frogs, for example – and some are important pollinators.