Comparative Knockdown Efficacy of Locally Made Insecticide ‘Ota Pia-Pia’ and Commercially Available ‘Sniper’ Against Malaria Vectors Using Deltametrin as the Control Standard in Keffi Local Government Area, Nasarawa, Nigeria

Mosquitoes are vectors of the major diseases of public health concern in the World. These include malaria, dengue fever, lymphatic filariasis, yellow fever, chikwungunya and recently zika virus causing morbidity and mortality in tropical and sub-tropical regions of the world. The success of malarial vector control depends on the susceptibility of Anopheles mosquitoes to insecticides. One locally made insecticide (Ota Pia-Pia), and synthetic insecticides Sniper and while Deltamethrin were used as a go standard from WHOPES as the control for the two insecticide to conduct Bioassay test against Anopheles mosquitoes in Keffi Local Government Area, Nasarawa the aim is to compare state of knockdown effects. The test papers included Ota pia-pia impregnated with (0.05%, 0.5% and 1.0%), sniper (0.05%, 0.5% and 1.0%), Deltamethrin (0.05%) as control for the insecticides and a general control using untreated paper impregnated with 0.05% of olive oil. Anopheles mosquito larvae were collected from three locations in Keffi Local Government Area and were returned in plastic bowls to the insectary laboratory of the Department of Zoology, Nasarawa State University, Keffi and reared to adults. One hundred (100) female Anopheles mosquitoes were fed with glucose for 3 – 5 days used in the Bioassay per treatment and replicated four times. The post-exposure one hour knockdown and 24hours mortality was assessed. It was observed that at 1%, 0.5% and 0.05% concentrations in sniper had the highest knockdown effect, 96%, 90% and 88% respectively while Deltamethrin had the least knockdown effect of 25%, 28% and 29% in August, September and October respectively. The results indicated that the mosquito populations in the locality were more resistant to Deltamethrin than sniper. A regular monitoring of resistance status is essential to help control mosquitoes in our communities.