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ARS Home » Northeast Area » Beltsville, Maryland (BARC) » Beltsville Agricultural Research Center » Invasive Insect Biocontrol & Behavior Laboratory » Research » Research Project #441353

Research Project: Methyl Benzoate and Analogs to Control Mosquitoes of Medical Importance

Location: Invasive Insect Biocontrol & Behavior Laboratory

Project Number: 8042-22000-315-018-I
Project Type: Interagency Reimbursable Agreement

Start Date: Feb 25, 2021
End Date: Sep 30, 2024

Objective:
Identify and isolate chemicals based on plant origin, including attractants, feeding deterrents, repellents, pesticides for management of population of pests of medical importance. Electrophysiological, physiological, behavior activities of potential attractants, feeding deterrents, repellents, pesticides will be evaluated under the laboratory conditions. The candidate’s attractants, feeding deterrents, repellents, pesticides will be optimized using different formulations for field tests.

Approach:
Translated into behavioral manipulation strategies and used to manage the pests of medical importance in an environmentally and economically sustainable manner by: 1) collect chemicals from natural source and conduct chemical analyses and behavioral test to identify potential active compounds (attractants / feeding deterrents / repellents / pesticides); 2) conduct electrophysiological / physiological / behavior bioassays to evaluate attractive / repellent / toxic activities of synthetic vesrion; 3) write report for publication; 4) work with commercial companies to enable rapid commercialization of technologies.