Effects of Temephos, Permethrin, and Eucalyptus nitens Essential Oil on Survival and Swimming Behavior of Aedes aegypti and Anopheles pseudopunctipennis (Diptera: Culicidae) Larvae

ALVAREZ COSTA, AGUSTÍN; GONZALEZ, PAULA V; HARBURGUER, LAURA V; MASUH, HÉCTOR M

JOURNAL OF MEDICAL ENTOMOLOGY

ENTOMOLOGICAL SOC AMER

Año: 2018

0022-2585

An essential strategy to deal with mosquito-borne diseases is the control of larvae in their development sites. Themosquitoes Anopheles pseudopunctipennis (Theobald) (Diptera: Culicidae), a malaria vector, and Aedes aegypti (L.)(Diptera: Culicidae), vector of dengue, Zika, yellow fever, and chikungunya viruses, breed in very different habitats.Insecticide treatments of mosquito larvae focus mainly on their lethal effects. However, insecticide degradationor the poor dosage of larvicides will invariably lead to the sublethal exposure of a target (and nontarget) species,the nonlethal effects of these compounds may have important effects on vital insect activities, and therefore theirevaluation is necessary. In this study, we assessed the survival and swimming behavior of larvae of Ae. aegyptiand An. pseudopunctipennis exposed to increasing concentrations of three larvicides. We found that Ae. aegypti,was more sensitive to the larvicides than An. pseudopunctipennis, we also observed an overall decrease in themovement of those larvae of both species, which survive the treatments. This decrease might have ecologicalrelevance in their natural habitats, increasing the chance to be predated and decreasing their ability to obtain food.Finally, this information will be valuable to assist authorities to make decisions in the implementation of furthercontrol programs.