THE ASSESSMENT OF INSECTICIDAL IMPACT ON THE MALARIA MOSQUITO'S VECTORIAL CAPACITY, FROM DATA ON THE PROPORTION OF PAROUS FEMALES

Abstract

In malaria eradication the residual insecticide exerts upon the mosquito's vectorial capacity a direct insecticidal impact, the order of which may be measured by observing the decrease in the proportion of parous females. The impact is expressed as the product of the degree of reduction of the expectation of infective life (termed the longevity factor of impact) and that of the expectation of life (the density factor). To compute the factors from the proportion parous it is necessary to know also the mean difference in age between the nulliparous and the youngest parous females in the sample, and the sporogonic period of the parasite.Graphs are presented to enable the field worker, who has observed these parameters, to read off from his data the proportion surviving one day, the expectation of infective life and the expectation of life. Examples from the field are used to illustrate the manner of computing the direct insecticidal impact with the aid of the graphs. It is emphasized that this method can only measure the relative impact on vectorial capacity, and will not show whether the actual level of vectorial capacity is such that a malaria reproduction rate of <1 is indicated.