There are many reasons why mosquito control alone may not be enough to end malaria. For example, bed nets work very well, but only if enough people are sleeping under them when mosquitoes bite. But in many rural communities in southern Mozambique people stay outside late (cooking, socializing, or doing school work) and get bitten then, Paaijmans and his colleagues have found. After people go indoors, they don’t necessarily go to bed immediately, leaving them vulnerable to mosquitoes again.

People don’t always welcome indoor spraying, either. It’s inconvenient—families have to move their belongings outside—and can smell bad, and some people don’t trust the army of sprayers or the government that sends them, Saifodine says. After they leave, some residents wash or replaster their walls or build new rooms, Paaijmans’s team has found.

You can read the full story here.