ABSTRACT
It is no exaggeration to say that human history is a fight against infectious diseases. Many arthropod-borne infectious diseases such as malaria and trypanosomiasis still affect people today. Furthermore, emerging infectious diseases that were previously neglected or unknown have been reported frequently, and they are spreading across various regions. Because we currently have no effective vaccine for most of these diseases, the most reliable method for prevention is controlling vector arthropods. In order to establish such pest management strategies, chemical ecological studies would be valuable. Vector arthropods that transmit infectious diseases to humans and livestock are mostly tiny and, therefore, use chemical cues to optimize their behavioral efficiency. Thus, such the chemicals have great potential for application in controlling these pests with a low risk of environmental pollution or resistance development. In this chapter, studies on representative vector arthropods and semiochemicals that are essential for their lifecycle are reviewed to examine the promotions of applications in chemical ecology.
