Efficacy of Commonly Used Mosquito Coils Containing Pyrethrin against Lymphatic Filariasis Vector Culex quinquefasciatus (Say) in Gombe

Aims: Mosquito coil is a common insect repellant used in many homes to repel and kill mosquitoes that transmit diseases and another insect pest. The present study was conducted to explore the potency of the commonly used brand of mosquito coil containing pyrethroids against Culex quinquefasciatus in Gombe and its communities.

Place and Duration of Study: Department of Biological sciences insectary laboratory of Gombe State University, Gombe, Nigeria between August and December 2017.

Methodology: Four (4) different brands tagged; C1, C2, C3 and C4 containing 0.08% Merperflutrin, 0.2% Pyrethroids, 0.05% Transflutrine + 0.1% Esbiothrin and 0.25% d-Trans-allethrin respectively were investigated. Ten (10) reared adult mosquitoes were transferred separately into various containers using an aspirator. Data on knockdown time and Adult mortality were recorded. All the data collected were analyzed using SPSS version 24.0. Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) was used to determine the significant difference between the treatments at P=.05.

Results: Merperflutrin 0.08%, Transflutrine 0.05% + Esbiothrin 0.1% and 0.25% d-Transalletrin recorded highest mortality of 100% each and 0.2% Pyrethroids recorded 96% mortality at 24hours of exposure to the treatment respectively. The mortality is time- dependent and all the treatments show significant mortality at P=.05. Transflutrine 0.05% + Esbiothrin 0.1% recorded the lowest KT50 value of 2.41 min.

Conclusion: Merperflutrin 0.08%, and Transflutrine 0.05% + Esbiothrin 0.1% have the highest efficacy; faster knockdown rate and could be used as a repellent in minimizing the population of the indoor resting density of mosquitoes’ species in our homes.