Housing improvement such as blocking eaves and screening windows can help in reducing exposure to indoor biting mosquitoes. The impacts of physical barriers could potentially be boosted by the addition of a mechanism that kills mosquitoes as they attempt to enter the house. One example is to combine household screening with EaveTubes, which are insecticide-treated tubes inserted into closed eaves that attract and kill host-searching mosquitoes. The epidemiological impact of screening + EaveTubes is being evaluated in a large cluster randomized trial in Cote d'Ivoire. The study presented here is designed as a complement to this trial to help better understand the functional roles of screening and EaveTubes. We began by evaluating householder behaviour and household condition in the study villages. This work revealed that doors (and to some extent windows) were left open for large parts of the evening and morning, and that even houses modified to make them more ‘mosquito proof’ often had possible entry points for mosquitoes. We next built two realistic experimental houses in a village to enable us to explore how these aspects of behaviour and household quality affected the impact of screening and EaveTubes. We found that screening could have a substantial impact on indoor mosquito densities, even with realistic household condition and behaviour. By contrast, EaveTubes had no significant impact on indoor mosquito density, either as a stand-alone intervention or in combination with screening. However, there was evidence that mosquitoes recruited to the EaveTubes, and the resulting mortality could create a community benefit. These complementary modes of action of screening and EaveTubes support the rationale of combining the technologies to create a ‘Lethal House Lure’.

This article is part of the theme issue ‘Novel control strategies for mosquito-borne diseases’.

住房改善，例如堵住屋檐和遮蔽窗户，可以帮助减少接触室内叮咬蚊子的机会。通过增加一种在蚊子试图进入房屋时将其杀死的机制，可能会增强物理屏障的影响。一个例子是将家庭筛查与 EaveTubes 相结合，EaveTubes 是一种经过杀虫剂处理的管子，插入封闭的屋檐，吸引并杀死寻找宿主的蚊子。科特迪瓦的一项大型集群随机试验正在评估筛查 + EaveTubes 的流行病学影响。此处介绍的研究旨在作为该试验的补充，以帮助更好地了解筛查和 EaveTubes 的功能作用。我们首先评估了研究村的户主行为和家庭状况。这项工作表明，在晚上和早晨的大部分时间里，门（以及某种程度上的窗户）都是敞开的，即使经过改造以使其更“防蚊”的房屋也经常有蚊子可能的进入点。接下来，我们在一个村庄建造了两座逼真的实验屋，让我们能够探索行为和家庭质量的这些方面如何影响筛选和 EaveTubes 的影响。我们发现，即使在现实的家庭条件和行为下，筛查也会对室内蚊子密度产生重大影响。相比之下，EaveTubes 对室内蚊子密度没有显着影响，无论是作为独立干预措施还是与筛查结合使用。然而，有证据表明蚊子会被招募到 EaveTubes 中，由此产生的死亡率可以为社区带来好处。

本文是主题问题“蚊媒疾病的新型控制策略”的一部分。