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ARS Home » Southeast Area » Gainesville, Florida » Center for Medical, Agricultural and Veterinary Entomology » Mosquito and Fly Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #125394
Title: LABORATORY AND FIELD EVALUATION OF INSECT REPELLENTS AS OVIPOSITION DETERRENTS AGAINST THE MOSQUITO AEDES ALBOPICTUS

Author
item XUE, R. - IFAS
item Barnard, Donald
item ALI, A. - UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA

Submitted to: Medical and Veterinary Entomology
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 8/15/2001
Publication Date: 8/15/2001
Citation: XUE, R.D., BARNARD, D.R., ALI, A. LABORATORY AND FIELD EVALUATION OF INSECT REPELLENTS AS OVIPOSITION DETERRENTS AGAINST THE MOSQUITO AEDES ALBOPICTUS. MEDICAL AND VETERINARY ENTOMOLOGY. 2001. v.15. p.126-131.

Interpretive Summary: Insect repellents intended for application on skin usually are not evaluated for other kinds of biological activity. However, when scientists at the ARS Center for Medical, Agricultural, and Veterinary Entomology in Gainesville, Florida and the University of Florida tested the mosquito repellent deet and two experimental repellents in the laboratory they found dthat the repellent-treated water prevented egg-laying by mosquitoes for as long as 13 days. Subsequently, in tests of ovipositional repellency under field conditions, one experimental repellent prevented oviposition for 3 weeks. Based on the results of the field study, it was concluded that oviposition repellents could be useful for mosquito control. In urban environments, for example, where mosquitoes can develop in small quantities of water in leaf axils, cups, cans, bird baths, etc., containers with repellent-treated water could be positioned to direct gravid females to attractant-enhanced lethal ovitraps that would destroy the mosquitoes as they attempted to lay eggs.

Technical Abstract: Three experimental approaches were used to evaluate the oviposition deterrency of three insect repellents, AI3-35765, AI3-37220 (piperidine compounds), and the standard N,N-diethyl-3-methylbenzamide (deet) to the mosquito Aedes albopictus Skuse (Diptera: Culicidae). Against laboratory- reared Ae. albopictus gravid females, the EC50 values of AI3-37220, AI3- 35765 and deet were 0.004 percent, 0.008 percent and 0.011 percent in laboratory cages and 0.004 percent, 0.01 percent and 0.009 percent in an outdoor screened cage. For a natural population of Ae. albopictus tested in the field, the EC50 values were determined as 0.004 percent, 0.008 percent and 0.001 percent, respectively. Ageing concentrations of 0.1 percent of each repellent provided greater than 50 percent effective oviposition deterrency against the laboratory population of Ae. albopictus for 13 days in laboratory cages, for 15 days in the outdoor cage, and for 21 days against field population of Ae. albopictus in Florida. These topical skin repellents are effective oviposition deterrents for Ae. albopictus when employed at relatively low application rates.