Mosquito Spray

The potential harm that can be wreaked by disease-carrying mosquitoes has long been recognized by global health organizations and governments. Especially in developing countries, but also in developed nations, community-wide efforts to eradicate mosquito populations were implemented and mosquito spraying was performed to blanket large areas with mosquito-killing chemicals.

One of the first insecticides to be used on such a large scale was the infamous DDT. While this insecticide seemed to be effective at poisoning mosquitoes, it also proved effective at poisoning the environment and other animals, including humans; its use has been banned in developed nations, while some developing nations still claim that its benefits outweigh its risks.

Organophosphates and carbamates were also used in the past, due to their ability to dispose of mosquitoes quickly; similarly to DDT, though, their success in dealing with mosquitoes went hand in hand with problems for non-mosquito populations. They produced a foul odor, were very volatile and quite toxic for mammals; needless to say, both the professional and consumer pest-control markets decided that a replacement strategy was necessary.

Currently, the most popular insecticide components in mosquito sprays seem to be pyrethroids. Pyrethroids are synthetic derivates of pyrethrum, an insecticide naturally produced in chrysanthemum plants. Pyrethroids have actually been synthesized and used in insecticides for over a century. These chemicals directly attack an insect’s nervous system and therefore are very toxic to the insect.

Fortunately for non-insects, however, pyrethroids don’t present high toxicity levels for other animals; they have actually been used for quite some time in mosquito spray products consumed by livestock. What’s more, these substances decompose rather rapidly when exposed to sunlight and so do not present problems of environmental accumulation, a huge issue with DDT mosquito sprays. For these reasons, pyrethroid mosquito sprays are relatively safe.

The effectiveness of pyrethroids has come into question, however, and many organizations claim that they are not as useful in mosquito control programs as is necessary. Indeed, there have been some instances where mosquitoes exposed to pyrethroids actually recovered. To prevent this from happening, manufacturers mix in other compounds, called synergists, to increase the insecticidal properties of pyrethroids. While these synergists have little, if any, insecticidal properties of their own, in combination with a pyrethroid, they create highly effective killing machines.

While many mosquito sprays contain insecticides, you can also find mosquito sprays enhanced with other compounds, often natural, that don’t necessarily kill mosquitoes. Some companies market liquid garlic mosquito sprays, whose odor is intolerable to mosquitoes (garlic can also be toxic to mosquitoes at high concentrations).

Though these may be “all-natural”, completely biodegradable mosquito spray systems and work for an individual person’s backyard, they are insufficient in effectively eliminating mosquito-borne disease problems. To combat these problems, some mosquito spray formulations have been created, based on natural ingredients, to be placed in water sources capable of housing mosquito eggs. Formulations will suffocate or make the environment inhospitable in some other way to eggs and prevent them from being able to hatch.