Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2016 Jan;53(1):139-43.
doi: 10.1093/jme/tjv159.

The Influence of Ambient Temperature on the Susceptibility of Aedes aegypti (Diptera: Culicidae) to the Pyrethroid Insecticide Permethrin

Shavonn R Whiten, Robert K D Peterson

The Influence of Ambient Temperature on the Susceptibility of Aedes aegypti (Diptera: Culicidae) to the Pyrethroid Insecticide Permethrin

Shavonn R Whiten et al. J Med Entomol. 2016 Jan.

Abstract

Insecticides are the most common strategy used for the management of mosquitoes. Changes in ambient temperature can alter the toxicity of insecticides to ectothermic organisms. Studies show organophosphate insecticides exhibit a positive correlation between ambient temperature and mortality for many insect species, and carbamate insecticides exhibit a slightly negative correlation between ambient temperature and mortality. Pyrethroid insecticides exhibit a distinctly negative correlation between increasing ambient temperature and mortality for insects. However, this relationship has not been systematically studied for adult mosquitoes. Therefore, we examined the influence of temperature on the susceptibility of adult Aedes aegypti L. (Diptera: Culicidae) when exposed to permethrin. The median lethal concentration, LC50, was estimated for adult Ae. aegypti when exposed to eight concentrations of permethrin (ranging from 0.06–0.58 ng/cm2) at each of the following temperatures—16, 23, 26, 30, 32, and 34C—for 24 h in bottle assays. The estimated LC50 for each temperature was 0.26, 0.36, 0.36, 0.45, 0.27, and 0.31 ng/cm2, respectively. Results indicated a negative correlation between temperature and mortality from 16 to 30C, a positive correlation between temperature and mortality from 30 to 32C, and a negative correlation between temperature and mortality from 32 to 34C. If mosquito populations are expanding in space and time because of increased ambient temperatures and cannot be managed as effectively with pyrethroids, the spread of mosquito-borne diseases may pose considerable additional risk to public health.

PubMed Disclaimer

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

Publication types

LinkOut - more resources