evaluation of melaleuca cajuputi (family: myrtaceae) essen¬tial oil in aerosol spray cans against dengue vectors in low cost housing flats

background: melaleuca cajuputi essential oil in aerosol spray was evaluated against the dengue vectors aedes ae­gypti and ae. albopictus at low cost housing flats in section 10, setapak, kuala lumpur, malaysia. methods: essential oil in aerosol viz: 5% and 10% of concentrations were sprayed for 5 seconds each towards hung mos­quitoes in 5 cylindrical net cages. aerosol weights were recorded before and after spraying to determine dis­charge rates. knockdown and mortality number were observed and compared to ms standard aerosol which contain 0.07% prallethrin and 0.05% d-phenothrin as positive control and aerosol contain 40% kerosene and 60% lpg was used as negative control. results: high knockdown and mortality was observed in both species of mosquitoes towards ms standard aerosol. there was a significant difference ( p <0.05) of mortality and knockdown between 5% and 10% of essential oil aero­sol and 5% and 10% essential oil between ms standard. for 5% essential oil, mean percentage (%) of knockdown and mortality of ae. aegypti displayed slightly higher compared to ae. albopictus. spraying with 5% m. cajuputi essen­tial oil aerosol indicated a knockdown of ae. aegypti 5.60±1.18 and mortality of 22.90±4.22 while ae. albopic­tus showed 4.60±0.89 knockdown and 20.00±2.85 mortality. the 10% essential oil concentration gave 23.60±1.68 knock­down and 48.05±0.37 mortality for ae. aegypti . ae. albopictus gave 23.00±3.16 knockdown and 44.20 ± 2.10 mortal­ity respectively. conclusions: extracts of essential oils does possessed an adulticidal effects and could be considered and utilized for fu­ture dengue vectors control.