Only the good die young: a novel paradigm for mosquito control

Andrew Read and colleagues have proposed that insecticides acting late in the vector lifetime are less susceptible to evolutionary pressures, thereby avoiding insecticide resistance. Such late-life acting insecticides would kill the vector before the pathogen's extrinsic cycle is complete, but allow the vector to remain reproductively active. Some examples of late-life acting insecticides are discussed. By targeting older vectors, the dangerous cohorts--those capable of transmitting the fully developed pathogen--are removed.