mosquito

There is growing interest in the potential to modify houses to target mosquitoes with insecticides or repellents as they search for human hosts. One version of this ‘Lethal House Lure’ approach is the In2Care® EaveTube, which consists of a section of polyvinyl chloride (PVC) pipe fitted into a closed eave, with an insert comprising electrostatic netting treated with insecticide powder placed inside the tube. Preliminary evidence suggests that when combined with screening of doors and windows, there is a reduction in entry of mosquitoes and an increase in mortality. However, the rate of overnight mortality remains unclear. The current study used a field enclosure built around experimental huts to investigate the mortality of cohorts of mosquitoes over multiple nights.

The immediate aim of our study was to analyse the behaviour of the malarial mosquito Anopheles coluzzii (An. gambiae species complex) near a human host with the ultimate aim of contributing to our fundamental understanding of mosquito host-seeking behaviour and the overall aim of identifying behaviours that could be exploited to enhance sampling and control strategies.

However, little was known about how Ivermectin targets mosquitoes – it was developed to treat diseases in nematodes – so Meyers, Brian Foy and a team of colleagues from Colorado State University, including Meg Gray, Wojtek Kuklinski, Lucas Johnson, Christopher Snow, William Black IV and Kathryn Partin, decided to find out more about the drug's modus operandi.

This in-depth Illumina sequencing and assembly of the An. gambiae midgut transcriptome doubled the number of known transcripts and tripled the number of variants known in this mosquito species.

We explore the effect of PPF exposure at seven time points around blood feeding on individual Anopheles gambiae sensu stricto and Culex quinquefasciatus fecundity and ability to transfer in laboratory assays.