ARS | Publication request: Efficacy of Ovitrap Colors and Patterns for Attracting Aedes albopictus (Diptera: Culicidae) at Suburban Field Sites in North Central Florida

Submitted to: Journal of the American Mosquito Control Association
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: May 5, 2011
Publication Date: N/A

Interpretive Summary: Aedes albopictus, a day-biting mosquito that is rapidly colonizing new habit globally due to the tire trade, is an effective vector of the pathogens that sicken humans with dengue fever and chickungunya fever. Dengue is the most rapidly spreading vector-borne viral disease on earth, with over 50 million clinical cases and 25,000 deaths last year. Aedes albopictus is difficult to control by conventional methods such as ultra-low volume aerosol sprays and as doesn’t readily enter standard mosquito light traps. Surveillance often rely on oviposition traps, or ovitraps, to collect eggs from adults to indicate the presence of these vectors. Recently, ovitraps have been developed with insecticide to kill gravid adults using ovitraps and immatures that hatch from ovitraps. We tried to improve on standard ovitrap color (glossy black) by testing several promising colors and patterns in an attempt to make ovitraps more visually attractive to this day-biting mosquito. We found that black still provided best results, but was followed closely by dark blue, the color used in Nzi traps found highly attractive by tsetse, stable, and horse flies.

Technical Abstract: We sought to visually enhance the attractiveness of a standard black ovitrap routinely used in surveillance of the Asian Tiger Mosquito, Aedes albopictus (Skuse), and now being used as lethal ovitraps in Ae. aegypti (L.) dengue control programs. Black plastic drinking cups (ovitraps) were visually altered to offer field populations of gravid female Aedes albopictus six different oviposition site choices. Trials were conducted at 3 field locations in Gainesville, Orange Park, and Jacksonville, Florida, during July and August, 2009. A black glossy cup served as the control and was tested against five cup choices consisting of white, blue, orange, or black and white contrasting patterns (checkered or vertically-striped). Means (SE) of eggs collected over six weeks for each choice were: black 122.53 (9.63) > blue 116.74 (10.74) > checkered 101.84 (9.53) > orange 97.15 (7.95) > striped 84.62 (8.17) > white 81.84 (8.74). Black ovitraps outperformed competing colored and contrasting patterned ovicups with respect to choice from gravid Ae. albopictus seeking artificial oviposition sites. Blue ovitraps performed almost equally well as black ovitraps and are easier to locate in field situations.