Male Mosquitoes as Vehicles for Insecticide

Approximately half of the human population is at risk of dengue. Additional mosquito borne pathogens, e.g., chikungunya, are spreading globally, as are important mosquito vectors. In the absence of approved vaccines, therapeutant or prophylaxis, vector control remains the only means to combat multiple mosquito-borne pathogens. Auto-dissemination strategies have attracted attention as a method to reduce mosquito populations and benefit from mosquito behavior, in which a female mosquito visits multiple breeding sites. As practiced currently, ‘dissemination stations’ are attractive to adult females, which enter the station, become contaminated with a juvenile hormone analogue (JHA), exit and then contaminate breeding sites with levels of JHA that are lethal to immature mosquitoes. The auto-dissemination method is particularly attractive for those species that breed within small, cryptic sites, which serve as refugia from existing insecticidal measures. Here we examine mathematically and empirically, a novel approach that is not station-based, but which integrates elements of autocidal control. Specifically, the approach would release JHA-contaminated adult male mosquitoes, which do not bite or transmit pathogens. The males deliver JHA to breeding sites, either directly or indirectly, i.e., via the cross-contamination of females, which subsequently transfer JHA to breeding sites. The examined autocidal method can be used preemptively, e.g., in areas with low densities of indigenous mosquitoes and in advance of the natural population increase. Unlike auto-dissemination approaches that rely upon the indigenous population, an approach based on artificially-reared males can made more intensive, because the number of males released is limited only by the logistics of male rearing and release and methods for mass-production of mosquitoes are developed already.