Potential biological control agents for the control of vector mosquitoes: A review

Abstract

Mosquitoes are a major cause of lethal vector-borne diseases like dengue, malaria, filariasis, chikungunya, and Japanese encephalitis, among other diseases. In a developing country like India, mosquito-borne diseases are significant threats to familiar people as in certain places, there remains low sanitation. Larval and pupal life stages of mosquitoes are mostly confined to tropical and temperate waterbodies and often form a significant proportion of biomass waterbodies. Due to rebound vectorial capacity, resistance to chemical insecticides, and harmful environmental effects, the vector control program has shifted to using biological control agents. These methods are target-specific, eco-friendly, cost-effective, and can be easily deployed. So, the present review is focused on collating and updating the information on the use of aquatic predators, bacterial strains such as Bacillus sp. and actinobacterial, algae, and fungi, which are widely used for control of adult mosquitoes in their variety of natural habitats. This review also covers the predation of larvivorous fish and botanical insecticides.