Introduction & Objectives: A laboratory study was carried out to investigate the insecticidal, irritant and anti-feeding effects of nets treated with various pyrethroids against susceptible and highly pyrethroid resistant strains of An. stephensi.

Materials & Methods: Tests were carried out inside a mosquito cage measuring 25×25×25 cm where mosquitoes were offered the opportunity to feed blood on an arm through the top face of the cage which had been pyrethroid treated.

Results: With all the pyrethroids tested, the resistant strain spent a longer time in contact with a treated net, which was in contact with a human arm, than did the susceptible strain. With permethrin the resistant strain fed significantly more successfully through the treated netting than did the susceptible strain. With deltamethrin there was a non-significant tendency in the same direction in comparing the two strains. However, with alphacypermethrin there was a non-significant tendency in the reverse direction. After 15 min in the cage which tested for the ability to feed through a pyrethroid treated net, observed mortality was higher with the susceptible than the resistant strain. 

Conclusion: Thus there was no sign that the longer resting of the resistant strain on treated netting would compensate for the fact that a higher dose was needed to kill this strain. Such compensation had been suggested with the West African An. gambiae where treated nets continue to work well against a highly resistant wild population. However this does not seem to apply to our resistant An. stephens