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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 #175911
Title: EFFICACY OF FOUR TRAP TYPES FOR DETECTING AND MONITORING CULEX SPP. IN NORTH CENTRAL FLORIDA

Author
item Kline, Daniel - Dan
item PATNAUDE, MICHAEL - COUNTY DEPT HEALTH, NY
item Barnard, Donald

Submitted to: Journal of Medical Entomology
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 7/19/2006
Publication Date: 11/1/2006
Citation: Kline, D.L., Patnaude, M., Barnard, D.R. 2006. Efficacy of four trap types for detection and monitoring of culex spp. in north central Florida. Journal of Medical Entomology. 43(6):1121-1128.

Interpretive Summary: A major emphasis of USDA, ARS, research scientists in the Surveillance CRIS project of the Mosquito and Fly Research Unit, at the Center for Medical, Agricultural and Veterinary Entomology, Gainesville, FL, is the development of new mosquito trapping technology. The present work was undertaken as part of an ongoing effort to develop and evaluate novel trapping technologies for mosquito species responsible for maintaining West Nile virus in nature. The relative efficacy of two traditional trap types was compared with two new trap types which utilize novel counterflow technology. Two major disease vector species were collected at two north central Florida study sites. One species was most abundant in one of the traditional traps. Both species were abundant in the two counterblow traps, but the second species was most abundant in the counterblow model which uses catalytic combustion to produce its own mosquito attractants (carbon dioxide, heat and moisture). This trap utilizes a thermoelectric generator to produce electricity to power the trap. This self generating power process allows the trap to be portable and trap placement becomes a function of where the mosquitoes exist.

Technical Abstract: The effectiveness of four types of mosquito traps at sampling Culex mosquitoes was compared at two north central Florida study sites (a commercial dairy and a swine research unit) with highly eutrophic lagoons that have a history of producing large populations of Culex mosquitoes. Traps evaluated included a John Hock (JH) Model 1012 CDC style light trap, JH Model 1712 CDC Gravid Trap (GT), and American Biophysics Corporation's Mosquito Magnet-Experimental (MM-X) and commercial model MM-Professional (Pro) traps. The MM-X and Pro traps are based on new counterflow technology. Culex nigripalpus and Cx. quinquefasciatus were the two most abundant species collected, and were the dominant species at the dairy site and swine research unit, respectively. Culex erraticus and Cx. salinarius were also caught, but in much lower numbers than the two dominant species at the swine unit, and rarely at the dairy site. At the dairy site the Pro collection of total female Cx. quinquefasciatuswas was significantly greater than all other trap types (Pro>GT>MM-X=CDC). The Pro also caught the most Cx. nigripalpus, but not significantly more than the CDC or MM-X (Pro=CDC=MM-X>GT). At the swine research unit the largest number of female Cx. quinquefasciatus were caught in the MM-X trap, but the only significant difference was with the CDC trap (MM-X=Pro=GT>CDC). For Cx. nigripalpus the CDC trap caught the most females, but these collections were only significantly different from the Pro and GT (CDC=MM-X>Pro>GT). The GT caught significantly more gravid female Cx. quinquefasciatus than all the other trap types at both sites, but collected very few gravid Cx. nigripalpus at either site.