Toxicity and repellency of two anthranilates against Aedes albopictus Skuse (Diptera: Culicidae)

•Toxicity and repellency of nontoxic butyl anthranilate (BA) and ethyl anthranilate (EA) were investigated in Aedes albopictus Skuse.•Both anthranilates demonstrated promising larvicidal activity against the tested mosquito species.•BA had stronger repellent effects against the tested mosquito species than EA.•BA repellency lasted longer than three commercial mosquito repellent products.•The results suggest that BA could be useful in the development of ecofriendly mosquito repellents. The ability of Aedes albopictus Skuse to transmit several pathogens to humans makes it a very important mosquito with public health significance. Ecofriendly products as alternatives to synthetic chemicals for the control of mosquito vectors are needed. Therefore, the larvicidal and repellent effects of two nontoxic chemicals, butyl anthranilate (BA) and ethyl anthranilate (EA), at different concentrations were compared in A. albopictus. The repellency persistence of BA and three commercial mosquito repellent products (Liushen repellent spray, DKB Korean, Raid repellent spray) against A. albopictus was compared. The results showed that 0.1% concentrations of BA and EA solutions were highly toxic to A. albopictus larvae, and the mortality rate was >90% after 4 h of treatment. We found that BA was more repellent than EA, and at 0.1% BA and 1% EA, and the repellency rates were 53.62% and 38.47%, respectively. Overall, 5% BA presented a significantly longer repellency time than the three commercial repellent products against female A. albopictus. These results indicate that BA has significant larvicidal and repellent effects and can be exploited further for the development of ecofriendly alternatives to existing toxic chemicals currently used for mosquito control. [Display omitted]