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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 #136277
Title: LABORATORY EVALUATION OF ADULTICIDAL ACTIVITY OF SIXTEEN INSECT REPELLENTS IN AEROSOL SPRAYS AGAINST THREE MOSQUITO SPECIES

Author
item XUE, RUI-DE - UNIV. OF FLORIDA, IFAS
item ALI, ARSHAD - UNIV. OF FLORIDA, IFAS
item Barnard, Donald

Submitted to: American Mosquito Control Association
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 2/15/2003
Publication Date: 9/25/2003
Citation: Xue, R., Ali, A., Barnard, D.R. 2003. LABORATORY EVALUATION OF ADULTICIDAL ACTIVITY OF SIXTEEN INSECT REPELLENTS IN AEROSOL SPRAYS AGAINST THREE MOSQUITO SPECIES. American Mosquito Control Association. 19:271-274.

Interpretive Summary: Topically applied insect repellents prevent mosquito landing and biting and the transmission of infectious disease agents to humans and animals. It is assumed, during this process, that the mosquito makes little, or no, contact with the treated skin surface and that repellent intoxication in the mosquito does not occur. The results of this study, which was performed by ARS scientists at the Center for Medical, Agricultural, and Veterinary Entomology in Gainesville, FL, showed that contact with aerosols of many commercially available mosquito repellents resulted in "knockdown" and death in female mosquitoes and that manmade chemical repellents acted more quickly in this regard than natural products-based repellents. The information from this study will be used to improve our understanding of the toxicity of repellents to mosquitoes; it also indicates a possible new use for repellents as a component of integrated mosquito control in selected urban, suburban, and agricultural environments.

Technical Abstract: Sixteen commercial insect repellents (six natural and 10 chemical products) in spray formulations were evaluated in the laboratory for adult knockdown (KD) and mortality of laboratory-reared female Aedes aegypti, Aedes albopictus and Anopheles quadrimaculatus. All tested products produced significant posttreatment KD and 24 h mortality of all three mosquito species. In general, the chemical repellents induced faster KD and of higher magnitude in adult mosquitoes than the natural product repellents except geraniol-based MosquitoSafeTM. All tested formulations except two natural product repellents caused 100% 24 h mortality of Ae. aegypti and all but one caused 100% 24 h mortality of Ae. albopictus and An. quadrimaculatus.