Guidelines for efficacy testing of household insecticide products - Mosquito coils, vaporizer mats, liquid vaporizers, ambient emanators and aerosols

Overview

The purpose of these guidelines is to provide specific and standardized procedures and criteria for efficacy testing and evaluation of specific household insecticide products intended for indoor use against mosquitoes, namely, mosquito coils, vaporizer mats, liquid vaporizers, ambient emanators and aerosols. Their aim is to harmonize the testing procedures carried out in different laboratories and institutions in order to generate comparable data for registering and labelling such products by national regulatory authorities. However, the requirements for registration of pesticides are determined by the national regulatory authorities.

These guidelines are an expanded and updated version of those recommended by the WHO Pesticide Evaluation Scheme (WHOPES) Informal Consultation on the evaluation and testing of insecticides held at the headquarters of the World Health Organization (WHO) in Geneva, Switzerland on 7–11 October 1996. They were reviewed and recommended by the WHO Consultation on testing and evaluation of public health pesticides held at WHO headquarters on 23–27 February 2009.

The document provides guidance and stepwise procedures on conducting laboratory studies, field testing and evaluation of household insecticide products intended for personal protection against mosquitoes. With some modifications, the guidelines can be used to determine the efficacy and personal protection of candidate products against other flying nuisance pests.