The sale of mosquito-eating frogs and toads is booming in Argentina as the government warned that Zika virus is spreading in the country despite the massive deployment of pesticides

The virus has has been linked to a rise in microcephaly, a debilitating birth defect where children are born with abnormally small heads.

Argentina’s health ministry Jorge Lemus admitted that mosquito Aedes aegypti survives the spraying that are being done in sensitive area.

‘We are working hard to fumigate areas in order to kill the mosquito but they are resistant to the chemicals, so we will need to change its composition,’ he said.

Lemus said that fumigation ‘is a complementary method that only attacks the adult mosquito, but does not kill the eggs or larvae’

Online websites offering adult frogs and toads are now demanding up to 100 pesos (£5) for a live specimen.

‘Buy toads and frogs to combat dengue and zika’ reads an advertisement on a popular website.

Argentinian government officials have agreed to subsidise almost 40 percent of the cost of insect repellents and insecticides.  But when many people complained that these did not seem to be working, frogs and toads started being bought and sold instead.

The government meanwhile has started a new campaign asking people to get rid of open water sources such as water-filled buckets, where mosquitoes may lay their eggs.

They reminded people that not just the Zika virus, but also other diseases like dengue dever, chikungunya, and yellow fever are transmitted by mosquitoes.

So far, only five cases of Zika have been reported in Argentina, all were patients who had recently returned from abroad.

However, thousands of dengue cases have been reported mainly in the provinces of Misiones and Formosa, in the north-east of the country, bordering Paraguay and Brazil, where it is endemic.

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