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ARS Home » Southeast Area » Gainesville, Florida » Center for Medical, Agricultural and Veterinary Entomology » Mosquito and Fly Research » Research » Research Project #427759

Research Project: Biting Arthropod Surveillance and Control

Location: Mosquito and Fly Research

Project Number: 6036-32000-050-000-D
Project Type: In-House Appropriated

Start Date: Oct 1, 2014
End Date: Sep 30, 2019

Objective:
1. Discover safe toxicants and behavior-altering chemicals. 1.A. Discover and develop new attractants for mosquitoes and other biting arthropods. 1.B. Discover and develop new topical repellents for mosquitoes and other biting arthropods. 1.C. Discover and develop new toxicants for mosquitoes and other biting arthropods. 1.D. Discover and develop dsRNA molecules for control of mosquitoes and other biting arthropods. 2. Develop and evaluate systems that disrupt arthropod dispersal, biting, host-finding, or survival. 2.A. Evaluate new fabric treatments and optimize existing treatments to provide improved protection from insect bites through military and civilian clothing. 2.B. Evaluate and optimize spatial repellent systems that protect hosts from arthropods in a local area. 2.C. Evaluate new and optimize existing treated targets. 2.D. Evaluate approaches to disinsection of aircraft. 2.E. Evaluate factors that influence the efficacy of aerosol application and residual pesticide barrier applications on natural and artificial materials in various ecological habitats, including assessment of efficacy in future climates based upon climate projection models. Design the best application methods to mitigate changing climate. 3. Improve accuracy and utility of surveillance techniques. 3.A. Evaluate new and optimize existing trapping systems. 3.B. Develop methods and techniques to accurately assess and predict mosquito population density and timing, and to deploy mosquito vector surveillance systems. Discover and characterize environmental predictors influenced by climate change that measure the risk of disease from pathogens transmitted by mosquitoes.

Approach:
A research focus of this plan is the discovery and development of new chemicals that impact arthropods. The discovery of new repellents will allow improved personal protection from topical application to skin (Sub-objective 1.A), or in a local area through release of chemical in dispersion systems (Sub-objective 2.B). The discovery of new toxicants (Sub-objective 1.C) has potential utility in treated clothing (Sub-objective 2.A) and treated targets (Sub-objective 2.C). New dsRNA molecules that function as insecticides (Sub-objective 1.D) provide a safe and novel means of insect control. Research on how environmental factors influence aerosol and residual control strategies will provide a means for more efficient arthropod control (Sub-objective 2.E). Novel attractants (Sub-objective 1.A) will allow more accurate and efficient surveillance when utilized in new and optimized trapping systems (Sub-objective 3.A). Improved surveillance trapping systems (Sub-objective 3.A) and increased accuracy in prediction of local arthropod populations based on surveillance trap studies (Sub-objective 3.B) will improve models for disease risk and enhance the effectiveness of control strategies. A better understanding of the relationship between environmental factors, and in particular climate change, will allow accurate prediction of vector-borne disease risk in a geographic area and thereby, when and where to employ control strategies to reduce debilitating and lethal illnesses in humans and other animals (Objective 4).