**Preface to "Insecticides for Mosquito Control: Strengthening the Evidence Base"**

The control of diseases spread by mosquitoes relies heavily on the tools used to control these vectors, which are commonly based on chemical insecticides. In the face of increasing insecticide resistance and other challenges it is critical that the toolbox of insecticides and tools continues to grow, and decisions about how to spend limited public health resources must be made using robust evidence about their efficacy.

This book presents original research into developing and characterizing new vector control tools, as well as understanding and monitoring insecticide resistance. Review articles explore the impact of insecticide resistance and offer guidance on insecticide choice in the face of pyrethroid resistance. Consensus methodologies are presented, in the form of standard operating procedures (SOPs) designed to be adopted and used to generate reproducible data that can be compared and interpreted across and between studies.

It is hoped that this collection of valuable articles will offer inspiration and guidance to researchers and those developing, procuring and deploying vector control tools on how consistent data can be generated and used to inform more effective development, evaluation, and use of new and existing vector control tools.

The cover image is a photo of petri dishes containing filter papers attached to a wall with water sensitive papers in a grid arrangemen<sup>t</sup> I took during a study to map the spray distribution applied by a vertical track sprayer (see page 55).

> **Rosemary S. Lees** *Editor*
