ARS | Publication request: Chemical Attractants, Inhibitors, and Repellents for Use in Surveillance and Control of Mosquitoes and Other Biting Flies.

Submitted to: Meeting Abstract
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: September 12, 2010
Publication Date: N/A

Technical Abstract: Mosquitoes locate preferred bloodmeal hosts by using various cues, some of the strongest of these are the volatile chemicals emanated by the host. Biting flies not only exhibit a preference between different species of host (e.g., human versus avian) but also between hosts within the same species (e.g., different humans). During the last decade, chemical analyses has been conducted to identify volatile compounds in animal blood, on feathers and skin of avians, and from the skin of humans, horses, and giraffes. Laboratory-based bioassays have been conducted to determine how components of these odors affect mosquito host-seeking and feeding. Some of these compounds attract mosquitoes, while a few suppress or inhibit host-finding ability by “masking” the host odors. The attraction-inhibitors impart a noticeably different behavioral effect than compounds considered to be topical repellents. This talk will cover results of chemical analyses and attraction bioassays with host odors, the discovery of potent attractant-inhibitors based originally on several trace level compounds in human emanations, and the design and development of new repellents based on structural similarity to analogues of N,N-diethyl-3-methylbenzamide (DEET).