Table 2 Some challenges associated with standard IRS practices, and potential of pre-treated eave ribbons to address these challenges

Quantities of chemicals

Large quantities of chemicals may be needed to treat all indoor surfaces

Significantly reduced quantities of chemicals will be required to treat the ribbons [36]

Spraying operations

Requires removal of household belongings before spraying; this slows down operations and can limit acceptability

Will not require removal of household belongings, thus can be done rapidly and at scale

Implementation teams

Implementation requires large team of well-trained personnel

Implementation can be done by individuals and does not require spray teams

Scalability

Difficult to achieve large-scale coverage across regions or countries because of costs and logistical challenges

Wider coverage can be obtained once supply chain is established

Mosquitoes targeted

Targets mosquitoes spread out on indoor resting surfaces

Target mosquitoes at specific points of entry [37]

Target surface

IRS monitoring is sub-optimal given differences in substrates on people’s walls; varied indoor resting behaviours of mosquitoes [60], and post-spraying changes on sprayed surfaces [61]

Monitoring can be standardized since the treatment substrate is standardizable