"Cherish lives, including those of mosquitoes," Wu Mingliang, chief engineer of Guangzhou Huicheng Pest Control Company, told the Global Times.

With 20 years of experience in controlling mosquito populations, Wu has bemoaned the overuse of pesticides for an outbreak of dengue fever in South China's Guangdong Province in September.

A total of 41,827 dengue cases were reported in Guangdong as of Wednesday, an increase of around 20 times over the previous year. More than 80 percent of all cases were detected in Guangzhou, the provincial capital.

This year's outbreak is believed to be the worst in two decades, the Xinhua News Agency reported on October 6. Six deaths were reported in Guangdong.

Dengue, also referred to as "breakbone fever" for its characteristic symptoms of severe joint and muscle pain, is a mosquito-borne disease.

With mosquito populations reaching five times normal levels, authorities in Guangzhou, the hardest-hit city in the province, have doused the area with mosquitocide and have released mosquito-eating fish into lakes and reservoirs - moves that have triggered grave concerns among experts over their ecological impact.