Design and development of porous terracotta disc: An eco-friendly novel control agent for mosquito larvae

In the present work, we synthesized silver nanoparticles supported by rice husk by hydrothermal treatment, as-synthesized silver nanoparticles rice husk (AgNPs-RH) bio-composite mixed with potter clay thoroughly, molded, dried into a disc-shaped before firing and applying as a point of use larvicidal agent. As designed, porous terracotta disc (PTD) infused with AgNPs-RH-biocomposite were characterized by UV spectrophotometer, Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy, transmission electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction analysis and energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy. The amount of silver ions released from the PTD was also found to be within the prescribed limit of 0.1 ppm-level. Later we dropped the PTD and tested its larvicidal activity against the IV^th instar larva stage of Aedes, Anopheles and Culex species. We found 100% larvicidal mortality in 24 h of exposure to the designed PTD and the amount of silver released from the porous disc was found to be 0.0343 ppm. Further from the histopathological studies of dead larvae revealed that the silver ions from the PTD have substantially damaged the exoskeleton of larvae.