Effect of D-Allethrin Aerosol and Coil to the Mortality of Mosquitoes

Abstract

Background: Commercial insecticides were widely used by communities to control the mosquito population in their houses. D-allethrin is one of insecticide ingredients widely distributed in two different concentrations namely 0.15% of aerosol and 0.3% of coil formulations. We aimed to understand the mortality of indoor mosquitoes after being exposed to d-allethrin 0.15% (aerosol) and 0.3% (coil) formulations.

Methods: This quasi-experiment study applied the posttest-only comparison group design. The aerosol and coil d-al­lethrin were used to expose the wild mosquitoes in twelve dormitory bedrooms of SMKN Jawa Tengah, a vocational high school belonging to Central Java Provincial Government, on March 2017. The compounds were exposed for 60 min to each bedroom with four-week interval for both of formulations. The knockdown mosquitoes were collected into a plastic cup and delivered to the laboratory for 24h holding, morphologically species identification and mortality re­cording. History of insecticide use in the dormitory was recorded by an interview with one student in each bedroom. Data were statistically analyzed with independent sample t-test and Mann-Whitney.

Results: As many as 57 knockdown mosquitoes belonging to three species were obtained namely Culex fuscocephala, Cx. quinquefasciatus and Aedes aegypti with mortality rate of 50.88% after 24h holding. Knockdown and mortality of mosquitoes were significantly different based on d-allethrin formulations. D-allethrin concentrations were not effective for controlling Culex mosquitoes but effective for Ae. aegypti.

Conclusion: Further efficacy of d-allethrin 0.15% aerosol to eradicate Ae. aegypti is necessary to be conducted in sup­porting the Dengue vector control.