Mosquito Behaviour and Disease Control

Mosquitoes vector many important disease pathogens. Controls of mosquito-borne diseases often involve lowering the contact rate between human and vector, and killing the vector. For instance, long lasting insecticidal nets (LLINs) act on both of these levels. Unfortunately, these are at best short-term solutions as mosquitoes are known to exhibit resistance to these interventions. Physiological resistance to insecticides and repellents is welldocumented worldwide [1]. However, behavioural resistance (e.g. changing encounter rates) to chemical threats and barriers is often underappreciated even though the importance of mosquito behaviour for disease control was emphasized as early as the 1950s [2]. For instance, it has been shown repeatedly that an increasing proportion of mosquitoes have started blood feeding earlier, before humans retire under their LLINs, essentially avoiding insecticides applied to the net’s surface [2]. Evolutionary perspectives