Larvicides based on B. sphaericus-based have the advantage of longer persistence in treated habitats compared to B. thuringiensis subsp. israelensis.
Within treated habitats, early instar anopheline mosquitoes were recovered more from habitats provided with neem and fish compared to Bti treated habitats.
All treated habitats recorded higher numbers of early instar larvae than late instars or pupae, indicating that gravid female mosquitoes still oviposited within treated habitats.
All treated habitats recorded higher numbers of early instar larvae than late instars or pupae, indicating that gravid female mosquitoes still oviposited within treated habitats, exposing their progeny to lethal effects of treatments.
Both early and late instar larvae of anopheline and culicine mosquitoes were more abundant in the controls than in the Bti and neem treated habitats.
Compared to the control, larvae from neem treated habitats had a much lower probability of growing to maturity because extremely few late instars and pupae of both species groups were present in these habitats.
Models with explicit dispersal also typically treat habitat as binary.
Most ecologists, evolutionary biologists and conservationists treat habitat as being synonymous with a particular vegetation or land-cover category without questioning the underlying assumptions of the adopted habitat concept.
In summary, the way several ecological, conservation and evolutionary studies perceive and treat the habitat of organisms is a clear example of simplistic, typological thinking.
To allow for a general interpretation about habitat, we treated sites as nested within habitat.
As illustrated in Figure 1, assessments of risk used during registration of pesticides are focused on protection of non-target organisms that enter and use the treated areas as habitat or that might be affected if the pesticide moves off the target agroecosystem.
