Mosquito Control

Dye-Braumuller K, Fredregill C, Debboun M., Mosquitoes, Communities, and Public Health in Texas, 8:249-278. 2019.

Globally, mosquito control has evolved over centuries, as humans have learned more about the world’s deadliest animal,that is, the mosquito, and the pathogens they are capable of transmitting. Mosquitoes not only transmit pathogens but also cause severe allergic reactions, intense irritation, and even extensive blood loss to some animals such as livestock. These factors have led to the development of a multitude of techniques and approaches to control mosquitoes throughout centuries. They have been established since Sir Patrick Manson first linked mosquitoes to the transmission of human pathogens when he discovered that the house mosquito harbored and presumably—at that time—was transmitting intermediate larvae of the filarial worm, Wuchereria bancrofti (Manson, 1878; Chernin, 1983; Clements and Harbach, 2017). Due to the wide range of impacts mosquitoes have on humans, large quantities of resources have been dedicated to their control. For example, the United States (US) spends hundreds of millions of dollars to control mosquitoes annually (Foster and Walker, 2009). There were a few major points in US history that led to these expansive control efforts, and the first part of this chapter will describe these milestones