Source reduction

This is a common approach (including the program at Recycling and dengue fever in Sukunan, Indonesia): this can be as simple as emptying water from containers around the home, and removing garbage that might collect water - the Aedes mosquito (which carries Dengue fever) is reputedly able to breed in just a few drops of rainwater in a discarded plastic water. However, source control may have a limited effect, as the mosquito can just lay in dry place (where the eggs wait for rain) or locate another water body (near or far off) and accomplish their mission.^{[verification needed]} (See GEM mosquito control, the inventor of which disputes the effectiveness of source control. This issue is debated on the Appropedia Forums: Efficacy of source reduction in mosquito control.)

In some cases, filling in or repairing water bodies is needed - e.g. small pools, stagnant drains. Apart from that, the cost should be quite low. Once a culture of correct garbage disposal is established, the main costs should be those for the proper disposal of rubbish.

Besides removing water from containers near houses and emprtying small pools, it is also effective on a large scale, ie by removing surface water in waterlogged areas, or by simply swapping the freshwater with seawater (mosquito eggs can't be layed in saline water).

GEM mosquito control

A very cheap means of capture is GEM mosquito control, where small water containers are placed around houses for mosquitoes to lay their eggs in, and carefully emptied at regular intervals, so that the larvae cannot grow to adulthood. Consisting only of a few pots (earthenware, plastic or whatever is available), the financial cost is probably lower than almost any other method.

(A Kiswahili version of the article is at Teknolojia ya GEM ya Kukabiliana na Mbu. It is spoken language of more than a dozen and official language of four African countries!)

Water bottle traps

Or small water bottles painted black with a little water in. Placed around the house but where the sun can shine on the trap for a few hours each day. The mosquitos enter during dawn to hide, you then close the top off. Later the hot sun shines down and kills all that is inside. Late afternoon you take the tops off to start the cycle again.

Capture

Relatively sophisticated designs (and presumably somewhat expensive and difficult to maintain) have depended on emitting CO₂ to attract mosquitoes.^{[verification needed]}

Biocontrol

Includes mosquito-eating fish such as mosquitofish^W, carnivorous plants (such as utricularium) and and various other predators, including a tiny freshwater crustacean used in Vietnam in combating dengue fever mosquitoes.^{[verification needed]} Another approach is to just outcompete the anopheles mosquitoes using other species of mosquitoes (that can not carry the disease). See Pond Networks.

Screening

• Protecting living space (houses and other buildings) through the use of fly screens on doors and windows. This has the advantage of allowing windows and doors to be left open to cool night breezes, making things more pleasant, and reducing the attraction of expensive and unsustainable air conditioning.
• Protecting sleeping space with mosquito nets over beds. The mosquito nets may be treated with pesticide. These may be hot to sleep under, but where mosquito bites are a nuisance, they may actually be considered more comfortable than sleeping without one.

Making the body poisonous to mosquitoes

A pill is under development that makes a person's blood poisonous to mosquitoes.^[1][2] Especially in urbanised areas, the pill would be effective as a control measure.

Applications of organic or chemical pesticides

Pesticide has obvious negative effects; however these are usually minor compared to high death rates when a disease is rampant. Care must obviously be taken; other measures should be taken very seriously to reduce or eliminate the need for toxic chemicals, even if pesticide is necessary in the short term. Pesticide is used for:

• Larvae - a surface film of (fossil) oil such as kerosene can also be used, though the environmental impact is a problem if done in the natural environment. Bacillus thuringiensis israelensis can also be used to kill of mosquito larvae. This method has almost no environmental impact whatsoever.^[3]
• Adult mosquitoes - pesticides can be sprayed on mosquito nets to kill adult mosquitoes. 2 fungi are currently being used for this, ie the Metarhizium anisopliae fungus, and the Beauveria bassiana fungus^[4]

Organic mosquito control is a blend of natural oils that is designed to work by disrupting the mosquitoes' neurological system while still having a minimum impact on the environment. One application usually lasts between 3-5 weeks and it is generally safe for children, pets and fish. However, precautions still have to be taken not be sprayed on edible crops or when the bees are actively foraging. Because the organic mosquito treatment has to be sprayed outside on wider areas such as lawns, backyards, campgrounds, schoolgrounds, playgrounds, etc specialized equipment is needed for spraying. A popular choice are commercial farm sprayers that attach as a backpack and provide a large spraying range. In the USA,^[5] organic mosquito treatment is used to prevent against the spread of diseases such as encephalitis, West Nile virus, heartworm and dengue fever. In other places where such treatments are not readily available, plant based repellents are still used by hanging bruises plants in the house or by putting together crude fumigants made of mosquito repelling plants. The lemon eucalyptus is widely viewed as being the most potent natural repellent made from an extract of the lemon eucalyptus tree leaves. Places where the^[6] lemon eucalyptus tree grows are Australia, Brazil, Bolivia, China, India, Ethiopia, Tanzania, Kenya.

Pesticides that have a negative effect on humans are best applied to interior walls. Less toxin is also spread into the environment. DDT is still sometimes used in this way, as this method of application minimizes the ecological damage, while providing an effective way of complementing other methods and other pesticides.^{[verification needed][7]}