Insecticidal Properties of Three Plant Extracts Against Culex quinquefasciatus Say and Aedes aegypti Linnaeus

Aedes aegypti is one of the mosquito species responsible for the transmission of Dengue fever, chikungunya, yellow fever and the worst, dengue hemorrhagic fever while Culex quinquefasciatus vectors Japanese encephalitis (JE) Wuchereria bancrofti and is responsible for several human and animal diseases. World Health Organization stated that about 2/5 of the global human population are currently threaten of dengue and the best way to control the transmission of dengue virus is fighting the mosquitoes that cause the disease. Indiscriminate use of several conventional mosquitocidal agents though effective cause several problems to non-target organism including human and affect the ecological balance as well. Thus there is a need to develop an alternative strategy to manage mosquito populations. Biological products like plant extracts are one of the ways to deal with mosquito control. The secondary metabolites of several plants due to their co-evolution with insects are known to have novel mosquitocidal molecules. The objective of the present study is to evaluate the bioactive potential of Lantena camera, Mentha piperita L. and Eucalyptis grandis. against Culex quinquefasciatus and Aedes aegypti. The leaf extracts were assessed for its larvicidal and repellency activity by standard methods. The highest larvicidal activity was obtained at LC50=96 ppm and 103 ppm against C.quinquifasciates and Aedes aegypti respectively with M.piperita extract while 100 % repellency was exhibited by Eucalyptis grandis extract up to 240 minutes for both the mosquito species. These results reveal that the selected plants have the potential to be considered in mosquito control programs.