Short summaries of new papers on insects, chemicals and vector-borne disease.
A paper of 8 September 2026 in PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases surveyed mitochondrial DNA and insecticide response of Aedes aegypti in Kenya. Coastal populations were clearly resistant to permethrin and still susceptible to bendiocarb, deltamethrin and fenitrothion.
On 11 June 2026 WHO updated insecticide-resistance methods: discriminating concentrations for two indoor residual-spray active ingredients, broflanilide and isocycloseram, and how to read susceptibility to chlorfenapyr.
A VectorIS summary citing CDC says leptospirosis is caused by Leptospira bacteria in the urine of infected animals and can rise after storms or floods. Incubation is often 2–30 days. Prevention includes avoiding swimming or wading in suspect water, covering wounds, wearing waterproof boots, and controlling rodents.
VectorIS summarises WHO’s insecticide-resistance pages: widespread resistance threatens malaria mosquito control. The programme includes GPIRM, a national planning framework, susceptibility-test SOPs, the World malaria report, a DHIS2 tool, a database from 1978, and the Malaria Threats Map.
VectorIS, citing CDC, says Dirofilaria immitis infection in dogs is heartworm disease, transmitted by mosquitoes (Aedes, Anopheles, Mansonia). In dogs it can block the pulmonary artery and cause cough and fatigue on exercise. Prevention is fewer mosquito bites and asking a veterinarian about a prevention schedule. The article names no brand.
VectorIS, citing CDC, says the bottle bioassay coats a bottle with a diagnostic dose, introduces mosquitoes, and watches them for two hours. Resistance is read from mortality at the diagnostic time: 98–100% susceptible, 90–97% resistance developing, under 90% resistant.
A qualitative study in PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases interviewed stakeholders in Vietnam about why proactive removal of mosquito breeding sites, triggered by early warning, is still difficult.
A paper in Cell Research reports that malnutrition changes skin chemistry and the skin microbiome, so mosquitoes are more strongly attracted and the risk of dengue-virus transmission rises.
A national serosurvey in Timor-Leste used spatial models to estimate the force of infection of dengue virus and to identify hotspots.
A study by Nguyen Van Hiep and colleagues in the Journal of Tropical Science and Engineering assessed permethrin susceptibility and pyrethroid-resistance mutations in Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus in Ho Chi Minh City.
A paper in Ecotoxicology (volume 35, article 123) assessed insecticide resistance in the house fly (Musca domestica) with feeding tests and a screen for resistance mutations.
A University of Kentucky study found that essential-oil products kill cockroaches well when sprayed directly but work poorly as a residual spray.
Mortality of Aedes aegypti exposed to deltamethrin fell from 95% to 46%. The study suggests reconsidering a strategy that relies on chemicals, and supporting Wolbachia.
Analysis of 971 bed bugs from 109 populations indicates that US lineages were already present and evolved separately, with different resistance mutations.
A study in Urban Ecosystems by Auburn University reconstructs how the Formosan subterranean termite (Coptotermes formosanus) spread from the port of Mobile deeper into Alabama over four decades.
A paper in Parasites & Vectors is the first to record both phenotypic resistance and kdr mutations in Aedes aegypti in mainland Tanzania, data for choosing chemicals in dengue control.
The transporter PfApiAT2 lets Plasmodium falciparum take up proline from the mosquito. Without it, oocysts stop developing and do not produce sporozoites.
A paper in the Journal of Pest Science uses a pose-tracking model to study how Coptotermes formosanus alates move after shedding their wings, then simulates how often they meet to found a new colony.
A BMC Biology study of Aedes aegypti from Havana, Cuba, found that vertical transmission can produce females with infectious virus in saliva without a blood meal from a sick person.
A survey at dengue hotspots in Malaysia found widespread pyrethroid resistance and the start of resistance to organophosphates.
A Nature paper reports that flaviviruses spread inside the mosquito mainly in extracellular vesicles carrying nucleocapsid, and that a match between the virus capsid and the mosquito VCP protein decides which mosquito species can transmit.
