Five new organotin(IV) complexes of composition [Bz 2 SnL 1 ] n (1), [Bz 3 SnL 1 HÁH 2 O] (2), [Me 2 SnL 2 ÁH 2 O] (3), [Me 2 SnL 3 ] (4) and [Bz 3 SnL 3 H] n (5) (where L 1 = (2S)-2-{[(E)-(4-hydroxypentan-2-ylidene)]amino}-4-methylpentanoate, L 2 = (rac)-2-{[(E)-1-(2hydroxyphenyl)methylidene]amino}-4-methylpentanoate and L 3 = (2S)-or (rac)-2-{[(E)-1-(2-hydroxyphenyl)ethylidene]amino}-4methylpentanoate) were synthesized and characterized using 1 H NMR, 13 C NMR, 119 Sn NMR and infrared spectroscopic techniques. The crystal structure of 2 reveals a distorted trigonal-bipyramidal geometry around the tin atom where the oxygen atoms of the carboxylate ligand and a water ligand occupy the axial positions, while the three benzyl ligands are located at the equatorial positions. On the other hand, the analogous derivative of enantiopure L 3 H (5) consists of polymeric chains, in which the ligandbridged tin atoms adopt the same trans-Bz 3 SnO 2 trigonal-bipyramidal configuration and are now coordinated to a phenolic oxygen atom instead of H 2 O. In 2, the OH hydrogen of the ketoimine substituent has moved to the nearby nitrogen atom while in the salicylidene derivative 5, the OH is located almost midway between the phenolic oxygen atom and the nitrogen atom of the C¼N group. For the dibenzyltin derivative 1, a polymeric chain structure is observed as a result of a long intermolecular SnÁÁÁO bond involving the exocyclic carbonyl oxygen atom from the tridentate ligand of a neighbouring tin-complex unit. The tin atom in this complex has distorted octahedral coordination geometry. In contrast, the racemic dimethyltin(IV) complexes 3 and 4 display discrete monomeric structures with a distorted octahedral-and trigonal-bipyramidal geometry, respectively. The structures show that the coordination mode of the Schiff base ligand depends primarily on the number of bulky benzyl ligands (R) at the tin atom, as indeed found in the structures of related complexes where R = phenyl. With three bulky R groups, the tridentate chelating O,N, O coordination mode is preferred, whereas with fewer or less bulky R ligands, only the carboxylate and hydroxy groups are involved, which leads to polymers. Larvicidal efficacies of two of the new tribenzyltin(IV) complexes (2 and 5) were assessed on the second larval instar of Anopheles stephensi mosquito larvae and compared with two triphenyltin(IV) analogues, [Ph 3 SnL 1 H] n and [Ph 3 SnL 3 H] n . The results demonstrate that the compounds containing Sn-Ph ligands are more effective than those with Sn-Bz ligands.