Bacillus spp. based larvicides are increasingly replacing, with numerous advantages, chemical insecticides in programmes for controlling black fly and mosquito populations. Brazil was among the pioneers in adopting Bacillus thuringiensis israelensis (B.t.i) to control black flies. However, the major current mosquito control programme in Brazil, the Programme for Eradication of Aedes aegypti lau...

A study was conducted to determine the toxicities (LC50S) of several pesticides on the commercially important red swamp crawfish, Procambarus clarkii, and 3 mosquito species common in Louisiana ricelands--Anopheles quadrimaculatus, Culex salinarius and Psorophora columbiae. Pesticides tested in laboratory bioassays included Bacillus sphaericus, B. thuringiensis var. israelensis, bendiocarb, gly...

BACKGROUND Bacillus thuringiensis is the most successful biological control agent used in agriculture, forestry and mosquito control. However, the insecticidal activity of the B. thuringiensis formulation is not very stable and rapidly loses its biological activity under field conditions, due to the ultraviolet radiation in sunlight. Melanin is known to absorb radiation therefore photo protecti...

A prominent example of LSM in urban sub-Saharan Africa is the Urban Malaria Control Program (UMCP), Dar es Salaam, initiated by the City Council in collaboration with Ifakara Health Institute and overseas academic institutions [1-2]. In 2004, mosquito surveillance systems were established and after one year of intensive baseline data collection (2005-2006), operational larviciding with Bacillus...