Mosquito control manages the population of mosquito

Mosquito

Mosquitoes are members of a family of nematocerid flies: the Culicidae . The word Mosquito is from the Spanish and Portuguese for little fly...

es to reduce their damage to human health, economies, and enjoyment. Mosquito control is a vital public-health practice throughout the world and especially in the tropics because mosquitoes spread many diseases, such as malaria

Malaria

Malaria is a mosquito-borne infectious disease of humans and other animals caused by eukaryotic protists of the genus Plasmodium. The disease results from the multiplication of Plasmodium parasites within red blood cells, causing symptoms that typically include fever and headache, in severe cases...

.

Mosquito-control operations are targeted against three different problems:

1. Nuisance mosquitoes bother people around homes or in parks and recreational areas;
2. Economically important mosquitoes reduce real estate
   Real estate
   In general use, esp. North American, 'real estate' is taken to mean "Property consisting of land and the buildings on it, along with its natural resources such as crops, minerals, or water; immovable property of this nature; an interest vested in this; an item of real property; buildings or...
   
    values, adversely affect tourism
   Tourism
   Tourism is travel for recreational, leisure or business purposes. The World Tourism Organization defines tourists as people "traveling to and staying in places outside their usual environment for not more than one consecutive year for leisure, business and other purposes".Tourism has become a...
   
    and related business interests, or negatively impact livestock
   Livestock
   Livestock refers to one or more domesticated animals raised in an agricultural setting to produce commodities such as food, fiber and labor. The term "livestock" as used in this article does not include poultry or farmed fish; however the inclusion of these, especially poultry, within the meaning...
   
    or poultry
   Poultry
   Poultry are domesticated birds kept by humans for the purpose of producing eggs, meat, and/or feathers. These most typically are members of the superorder Galloanserae , especially the order Galliformes and the family Anatidae , commonly known as "waterfowl"...
   
    production;
3. Public health is the focus when mosquitoes are vectors, or transmitters, of infectious disease
   Disease
   A disease is an abnormal condition affecting the body of an organism. It is often construed to be a medical condition associated with specific symptoms and signs. It may be caused by external factors, such as infectious disease, or it may be caused by internal dysfunctions, such as autoimmune...
   
   .

Disease organisms transmitted by mosquitoes include West Nile virus

West Nile virus

West Nile virus is a virus of the family Flaviviridae. Part of the Japanese encephalitis antigenic complex of viruses, it is found in both tropical and temperate regions. It mainly infects birds, but is known to infect humans, horses, dogs, cats, bats, chipmunks, skunks, squirrels, domestic...

, Saint Louis encephalitis virus

St. Louis Encephalitis

St. Louis Encephalitis is a disease caused by the Culex mosquito borne St. Louis Encephalitis virus. St. Louis encephalitis virus is related to Japanese encephalitis virus and is a member of the Flaviviridae subgroup. This disease mainly affects the United States...

, Eastern equine encephalomyelitis virus, Everglades virus

Everglades virus

Everglades virus is an alphavirus included in the Venezuelan equine encephalitis virus complex. The virus circulates among rodents and vector mosquitoes and occasionally infects humans....

, Highlands J virus

Highlands J virus

The Highlands J virus is a zoonotic alphavirus native to North and South America. It maintains a natural reservoir in the songbird population of freshwater swamps and is transmitted by the bite of the female Culiseta melanura mosquito.Though nearly identical in structure and natural cycle to the...

, La Crosse Encephalitis

La Crosse Encephalitis

La Crosse encephalitis is an encephalitis caused by an arbovirus which has a mosquito vector .-History:...

 virus in the United States; dengue fever

Dengue fever

Dengue fever , also known as breakbone fever, is an infectious tropical disease caused by the dengue virus. Symptoms include fever, headache, muscle and joint pains, and a characteristic skin rash that is similar to measles...

, yellow fever

Yellow fever

Yellow fever is an acute viral hemorrhagic disease. The virus is a 40 to 50 nm enveloped RNA virus with positive sense of the Flaviviridae family....

, Ilheus virus, malaria and filariasis

Filariasis

Filariasis is a parasitic disease and is considered an infectious tropical disease, that is caused by thread-like nematodes belonging to the superfamily Filarioidea, also known as "filariae"....

 in the American tropics; Rift Valley fever

Rift Valley fever

Rift Valley Fever is a viral zoonosis causing fever. It is spread by the bite of infected mosquitoes, typically the Aedes or Culex genera. The disease is caused by the RVF virus, a member of the genus Phlebovirus...

, Wuchereria bancrofti

Wuchereria bancrofti

Filaria, is a parasitic filarial nematode spread by a mosquito vector. It is one of the three parasites that cause lymphatic filariasis, an infection of the lymphatic system by filarial worms. It affects over 120 million people, primarily in Africa, South America, and other tropical and...

, Japanese Encephalitis

Japanese Encephalitis

Japanese encephalitis —previously known as Japanese B encephalitis to distinguish it from von Economo's A encephalitis—is a disease caused by the mosquito-borne Japanese encephalitis virus. The Japanese encephalitis virus is a virus from the family Flaviviridae. Domestic pigs and wild birds are...

, chikungunya

Chikungunya

Chikungunya virus is an insect-borne virus, of the genus Alphavirus, that is transmitted to humans by virus-carrying Aedes mosquitoes. There have been recent breakouts of CHIKV associated with severe illness...

, malaria and filariasis in Africa and Asia; and Murray Valley encephalitis in Australia.
Depending on the situation, source reduction, biocontrol, larviciding

Larvicide

A larvicide is an insecticide that is specifically targeted against the larval life stage of an insect. Their most common use is against mosquitoes...

 (control of larva

Larva

A larva is a distinct juvenile form many animals undergo before metamorphosis into adults. Animals with indirect development such as insects, amphibians, or cnidarians typically have a larval phase of their life cycle...

e), or adulticiding (control of adults) may be used to manage mosquito populations.