Bed net trap for the collection of host-seeking mosquitoes
The Mbita trap which is a bed-net trap described by Mathenge et al. (2002) was used to capture host-seeking mosquitoes. This is a modified conical bed-net made of light white cotton cloth instead of netting (Fig.2). The trap has two chambers; the upper trap chamber and the lower bait chamber. The upper chamber contained a netting panel fixed halfway (Fig. 2A) to prevent mosquitoes from reaching the human bait sleeping in the lower chamber (Fig. 2B). For this experiment, the netting panels were either treated or untreated. The treated netting panels were cut from DawaPlus 2.0 a long-lasting insecticidal net (LLIN) containing 80 mg/m2 deltamethrin. The nets were selected for this experiment based on the fact that they were distributed in the largest proportion in the study site by the National Malaria Control Programme in Kenya during the 2017 mass net campaign. The untreated bed net was obtained from the local market in Kisumu, Kenya.