Five new organotin(IV) complexes of composition [Bz2SnL1]n (), [Bz3SnL1H⋅H2O] (), [Me2SnL2⋅H2O] (), [Me2SnL3] () and [Bz3SnL3H]n () (where L1 = (2S)-2-{[(E)-(4-hydroxypentan-2-ylidene)]amino}-4-methylpentanoate, L2 = (rac)-2-{[(E)-1-(2-hydroxyphenyl)methylidene]amino}-4-methylpentanoate and L3 = (2S)- or (rac)-2-{[(E)-1-(2-hydroxyphenyl)ethylidene]amino}-4-methylpentanoate) were synthesized and characterized using 1H NMR, 13C NMR, 119Sn NMR and infrared spectroscopic techniques. The crystal structure of 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 L3H () consists of polymeric chains, in which the ligand-bridged tin atoms adopt the same trans-Bz3SnO2 trigonal-bipyramidal configuration and are now coordinated to a phenolic oxygen atom instead of H2O. In , the OH hydrogen of the ketoimine substituent has moved to the nearby nitrogen atom while in the salicylidene derivative , the OH is located almost midway between the phenolic oxygen atom and the nitrogen atom of the C[DOUBLE BOND]N group. For the dibenzyltin derivative , a polymeric chain structure is observed as a result of a long intermolecular Sn⋅⋅⋅O 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 and 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 ( and ) were assessed on the second larval instar of Anopheles stephensi mosquito larvae and compared with two triphenyltin(IV) analogues, [Ph3SnL1H]n and [Ph3SnL3H]n. The results demonstrate that the compounds containing Sn–Ph ligands are more effective than those with Sn–Bz ligands. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.