Non-Chemical Insecticidal Textiles

Mosquito-borne malaria threatens 40% of the world's population, killing at least one million people each year. Efforts to control mosquito populations with chemicals and habitat elimination are often beyond the means of many nations. In addition, both mosquitoes and the diseases they carry are becoming resistant to common chemical and medical interventions. In most cases vaccines are not available. Novel insecticidal textiles were created by binding safe, food-grade diatomaceous earth to fabrics with three different structures including: a 100% polypropylene 200 holes per inch mosquito netting, a 100% cotton terry cloth, and a knit fabric of unknown fiber content with an unusual texture on one side similar to a shag carpet. Mortality in mosquitoes of 86.1% was seen 24 hours after the initial exposure of 15 minutes to the mosquito netting loaded with 98.5 gm DE⁄g fabric. No significant difference in mortality was seen between the different fabric structures. The mechanical nature of the killing mechanism should exclude cross resistance that has developed from the use of chemical insecticides.

Author dc:creator

• Collins, Lynda E.

Advisors dc:contributor.advisor

• Dr. William Oxenham, Committee Member
• Prof. Nancy B Powell, Committee Member
• Dr. Marian G McCord, Committee Co-Chair
• Dr. Behnam Pourdeyhimi, Committee Chair

• Insecticidal textiles
• Diatomaceous earth
• malaria

Statement dc:rights

• I hereby certify that, if appropriate, I have obtained and attached hereto a written permission statement from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis, dis sertation, or project report, allowing distribution as specified below. I certify that the version I submitted is the same as that approved by my advisory committee. I hereby grant to NC State University or its agents the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible, under the conditions specified below, my thesis, dissertation, or project report in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. I retain all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis, dissertation or project report. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis, dissertation, or project report.

Dc Identifier Other

etd-03062008-103448

OAI record oai:identifier

https://repository.lib.ncsu.edu/server/oai/request?verb=GetRecord&metadataPrefix=dim&identifier=oai%3Arepository.lib.ncsu.edu%3A1840.16%2F2946