Human behaviors: A threat to mosquito control?

Abstract

In this work, we consider a simple theoretical model that enables us to take into account private human decisions that may interfere with public mosquito control. The model reflects the trade-off between perceived costs and observed efficacy. Our theoretical results emphasize that households may reduce their protective behavior in response to mechanical elimination techniques piloted by a public agent, leading to an increase in the total number of mosquitoes in the surrounding environment and generating a barrier for vector-borne diseases control. Our study is sufficiently generic to be applied to different arboviral diseases. It also shows that vector-control models and strategies have to take into account individual behaviors.