Mosquito control

Mosquito control manages the population of mosquitoes to reduce their damage to human health, economies, and enjoyment. Control strategies range from habitat modification and chemical insecticides to biological agents and mechanical traps. Climate change, artificial intelligence (AI), and community participation are increasingly shaping mosquito management today. Rising global temperatures have expanded mosquito habitats and disease risks, prompting new surveillance tools such as AI-enabled robots and community-led education programs to play key roles in reducing breeding grounds and tracking mosquito populations.

Mosquito-control operations are targeted to multiple problems:

  • Nuisance mosquitoes bother people around homes or in parks and recreational areas;
  • Economically important mosquitoes reduce real estate values, adversely affect tourism and related business interests, or negatively impact livestock or poultry production;
  • Public health is the focus when mosquitoes are vectors, or transmitters, of infectious disease.
  • Mosquito-borne diseases can threaten endangered species.

Disease organisms transmitted by mosquitoes include West Nile virus, Saint Louis encephalitis virus, Eastern equine encephalomyelitis virus, Everglades virus, Highlands J virus, La Crosse Encephalitis virus in the United States; dengue fever, yellow fever, Ilheus virus, malaria, Zika virus and filariasis in the American tropics; Rift Valley fever, Wuchereria bancrofti, Japanese encephalitis, chikungunya and filariasis in Africa and Asia; and Murray Valley encephalitis and Ross River fever in Australia. Vertical transmission from adult mosquitos to larvae is possible.

Depending on the situation, source reduction, biocontrol, larviciding (killing of larvae), or adulticiding (killing of adults) may be used to manage mosquito populations. These techniques are accomplished using habitat modification, pesticide, biological-control agents, and trapping. The advantage of non-toxic methods of control is they can be used in Conservation Areas.

Integrated pest management (IPM) is the use of the most environmentally appropriate method or combination of methods to control pest populations. Typical mosquito-control programs using IPM first conduct surveys, in order to determine the species composition, relative abundance and seasonal distribution of adult and larval mosquitoes, and only then is a control strategy defined.

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