Insecticide-free trapping bed-net can mitigate insecticide resistance threat in malaria vector control strategies

Mosquito-borne malaria kills 429,000 people each year with the problem acute in sub-Saharan Africa. The successes gained with long-lasting pyrethroid treated bed-nets is now in jeopardy because of wide-spread, pyrethroid-resistance in mosquitoes. Using crowd modeling theory normalized for standard bed-net architecture, we were able to design an attract-trap-kill mechanism for mosquitoes that does not require insecticides. Using three-dimensional polyester knitting and heat fixation, trap funnels were developed with high capture efficacy, no egression under worst-case laboratory conditions, and greater durability than current bed-nets sold. Field testing in Africa in WHO huts with Gen1-3 T (trap)-Nets validated our model, and as predicted, Gen3 had the highest efficacy with a 4.3-fold greater trap-kill rate with no deterrence or repellency compared to Permanet 2.0, the most common bed-net in Africa. A T-Net population model was developed based on field data to predict community level mosquito control compared to a pyrethroid bed-net. This model showed the Gen3 T-Net under field conditions in Africa against pyrethroid resistant mosquitoes was 12.7-fold more efficacious than single chemical, pyrethroid treated nets, demonstrating significantly greater mosquito control using bed-nets without insecticides.