Pest control in the distant future?

Scientists are researching ways to turn off "post-mating" behavior, like egg-laying in insects, according to Reuters.

Many female insects undergo profound changes in behavior after mating. Some
species start laying multiple eggs. Female mosquitoes, for example, seek out a
meal of blood -- often spreading malaria in the process.

Scientists have known for some time that such behavior is triggered by a so-called sex peptide molecule in the male's seminal fluid, but it has been unclear how it exerts its impact on the female.

Now Dickson and his colleagues have identified the receptor for the molecule in fruit flies and shown it is key to post-mating behavior. Females lacking the receptor continue to behave as virgins, even after mating, they reported in the journal Nature.