Coquillettidia and Mansonia species mosquitoes can be found throughout the world and are considered a significant nuisance to humans and domestic animals. Eggs are laid in rafts on the water surface with dense emergent vegetation. The respiratory siphon of immature stages of these genera is shaped to pierce the root of aquatic plants for oxygen. Larvae/pupae do not need to breathe on the water surface like other mosquito larvae species. Due to this special adaptation, the larvae are not easy to find in the field and are traditionally very hard to control.
Coquillettidia spp.
Coquillettidia perturbans (cattail mosquito) is a vector of the Eastern equine encephalitis virus (EEEV) in North America.
Mansonia spp.
Mansonia can be found throughout the world. The majority of species exist in tropical regions, but several range into the colder climates.
Mansonia titillans is known to transmit Venezuelan equine encephalitis in the southern U.S., Central, and South America. Some species of subgenus Mansonioides also transmit several arboviruses, but they are primarily important as vectors of the helminths that cause Brugian filariasis in India and Southeast Asia.
Mansonia uniformis, which is widely distributed from western Africa through southern Asia to Japan and the Australasian region, is a vector of Wuchereria bancrofti in western New Guinea.
Mansonia breed in permanent waters with vegetation. Larvae of some species burrow into debris on the bottom, whereas others cling to the roots of plants in floating masses.
Links to suggested control solutions for Coquillettidia/Mansonia
| VBC Biorational | Habitat |
| VectoLex Granules | Habitats with emergent aquatic vegetation (e.g. Typha spp. “cattails,” Phragmites spp. “common reeds,” Eichhornia spp. “water hyacinth”) |
| VectoMax Granules | |
| MetaLarv S-PT |
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