For decades, insecticide-treated bed nets and indoor insecticide spraying regimens have been important – and widely successful – treatments against mosquitoes that transmit malaria, a dangerous global disease. Yet these treatments also – for a time – suppressed undesirable household insects like bed bugs, cockroaches and flies. Now, a new North Carolina State University study reviewing the academic literature on indoor pest control shows that as the household insects developed resistance to the insecticides targeting mosquitoes, the return of these bed bugs, cockroaches and flies into homes has led to community distrust and often abandonment of these treatments – and to rising rates of malaria.
In short, the bed nets and insecticide treatments that were so effective in preventing mosquito bites – and therefore malaria – are increasingly viewed as the causes of household pest resurgence. "These insecticide-treated bed nets were not intended to kill household pests like bed bugs, but they were really good at it," said Chris Hayes, an NC State Ph.D.
student and co-corresponding author of a paper describing the work. "It's what people really liked, but the insecticides are not working as effectively on household pests anymore." "Non-target effects are usually harmful, but in this case they were beneficial," said Coby Schal, Blanton J.
Whitmire Distinguished Professor of Entomology at NC State and co-corresponding author of the paper. The value to people wasn't neces.