Behavioral Responses of Aedes aegypti (Diptera: Culicidae) Exposed to Deltamethrin and Possible Implications for Disease Control

Behavioral responses of nine Aedes aegypti (L.) strains, six from recent field collections and three from the long-established laboratory colonies, were tested under laboratory-controlled conditions by using an excito-repellency test system. All nine strains showed significant behavioral escape responses when exposed to deltamethrin at the standard field dose (0.02 g/m2), regardless of background insecticide susceptibility status (susceptible or tolerant/resistant). Insecticide contact irritancy played a predominate role in overall female mosquito escape responses, whereas noncontact repellency was not observed at levels significantly different from paired noncontact control tests (P > 0.01). Among the six field populations, the Jakarta (Indonesia) Toba (north Sumatra), and Bangkok female mosquitoes showed rapid exit (>78%) during 30 min of direct contact with insecticide-treated surfaces, whereas the other three strains demonstrated only moderate escape responses (32-56%) from the chambers. Moderate escape responses during direct insecticidal contact also were observed in the three laboratory test populations (44- 60%). Higher percentage of mortality was observed from laboratory strains (8-33%) that failed to escape compared with nonescape females of field strains (2-16%), possibly a reflection of background deltamethrin susceptibility status. We conclude that contact irritancy is a major behavioral response of Ae. aegypti when exposed directly to deltamethrin and that rapid flight escape from areas exposed to space sprays or surfaces treated with residual pyrethroids could have a significant impact on the effectiveness of adult mosquito control and disease transmission reduction measures.