A Comparison of the Attractiveness Efficiency of Three Mosquito Traps

Abstract:
Man is the main victim of Aedes aegypti. Due to this ecological niche it is one of the most important disease vector to mankind, being, in Brazil, the primary vector of dengue fever. It is found in hot and humid habitat, its development lasts little more than a week, from egg to adult. The only dengue’s control tactics is the vector control, so this is one of the most studied species. The present study has as primer objective to compare the effectiveness of three traps in the Ae. Aegypti monitoring. Its secondary objective is to monitor the FSP-USP campus. The three traps models were: Adultrap, a trap that has the gravidic female as target, Ovitrap, an egg trap, and ‘mosquitoeira’, a handmade trap, that captures the egg and do not allow the pre-emergence pupae to reach surface. All three traps have water as attractive. The experiment was held between June and November of 2008, at the FSP-USP campus. Ten points of capture were established, and each type of trap was placed, with one meter of distance between them. Every week the traps were visited and maintained. It was collected 108 especimens, from 3 different species, 60 Aedes albopictus, 47 Aedes aeqypti and 1 Culex sp. Despite Ae. aegypti be the focused species for all traps, the similar ecology between this two species turns the traps able to capture both species, and Ae. albopictus was the most abundant one during the whole time. The majority of individuals were collected in October and November, and the increase of its appearance was strongly correlated to the pluviosity and temperature increase. Adultrap had a 3.3% positiveness and 0.04 density index, ovitrap had a 6% positiveness and 0,57 density index and ‘mosquitoeira’ had a 0.6% positiveness (only positive when made of a blue PET bottle) and 0.11 density index. Ovitraps were signifficantly more sensible than all others, mosquitoeira was not attractive at all. Although adultrap can offer a real-time monitoring, due to its characteristic of capturing adult gravidic females. ‘Mosquitoeira’ needs some adjustments. The only positive capture was in a dark blue trap, which increases the attractiveness of the trap.