Browsing by Author "Kanagasundram, T."

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    Development of a mosquito-repelling paint
    (Uva Wellassa University of Sri Lanka, 2015) Kanagasundram, T.; Jayasuriya, C.K.
    Mosquito-borne diseases affect millions of people worldwide each year. They are the carriers of many harmful diseases such as West Nile Virus disease; Malaria, Dengue Fever, Chikungunya, Lyme disease, etc. (Aremu et al., 2009). A mosquito repellent is a substance applied to skin, clothing, or other surfaces which discourages mosquitoes from landing or climbing on that surface. However, existing products used for mosquito control have varying degrees of effectiveness (Patel et al., 2012). In this research, attempts were made to develop a mosquito repelling paint. In general, paints are stable mechanical dispersions of pigment, binder and solvent. Upon evaporation of the solvent, the pigment and binder form a continuous film that can be protective or decorative or both. Also some additives are normally added to paint formulation in order to tailor the paint to a specific purpose. In this research, Neem oil was used as an additive on emulsion paint for the purpose of developing a mosquito-repelling paint. Methodology Neem oil was extracted from Neem seeds by mechanical pressing method. A known quantity of Neem oil was added to the desired amount of the pure paint. The mixture was stirred vigorously for 20 minutes by using a magnetic stirrer. The above procedure was repeated for four different pure paint/ Neem oil ratios of 90:10, 88:12, 85:15 and 80:20. Two paints, one light and other dark were used in the study. The samples prepared using the light colour paint with varying amounts of Neem oil were named as L10, L12, L15 and L20, respectively. The samples prepared using the dark colour paint with varying amounts of Neem oil were named as D10, D12, D15 and D20, respectively. A box with desired dimension was prepared using cardboard in which the upper part was removed and replaced with a glass. The modified paint was applied to two vertical surfaces and pure paint which was used as the control was applied to the rest of the two vertical surfaces of the box. Then it was allowed to dry. The mosquitoes were caught by using a net and then placed them in the box already coated with paint. The above procedure was repeated for the samples prepared with both light and dark colour paints. The mosquito-repellency of the paints were calculated by counting the number of mosquitoes landed on each vertical surface over a testing period of 4 hours between 17.00 h and 21.00 h. Readings were taken at each 30 min interval, at 25- 30 °C and a relative humidity of 60 – 80% under both the presence and absence of light. Finally, the effect of Neem oil on desired paint properties such as glossiness, contrast ratio, abrasion resistance and water resistance were determined. Results and Discussion The mosquito-repellency was calculated according to the number of mosquitoes that were prevented from landing compared to the number of mosquitoes that landed on the control by using the following equation (Kazembe et al., 2012).