Insecticide Resistance: Can We Create Super-Mosquitoes?

Abstract

The 5-stage structured population model proposed by Schechtman and Souza [1] was modified to comprise insecticide resistance as a recessive trait and allow for additional death rates at the larval and imago stages. Insecticide resistance was assessed by evaluating the total fraction of the allele for resistance present in the population. A very intense insecticide application policy was investigated. It comprised 18 blocks of applications of adult insecticide, with a resting interval of 2 days between any two consecutive block of applications, during the summer season for a period of a 100 years. Each block of application consisted of two daily applications of insecticide for 5 consecutive days. Insecticide resistance as expressed by an increase in the fraction of the allele for resistance occurred for this very intensive policy. The resistance allele, which started at a frequency of 2%, got fixated at 100% after the insecticide application period.