Abstract
BackgroundIn the last decades, Aedes albopictus has become an increasing public health threat in tropical as well as in more recently invaded temperate areas due to its capacity to transmit several human arboviruses, among which Dengue, Chikungunya and Zika. Enhancing the efficiency of currently used collection approaches, such as ovitraps and sticky traps, is desirable for optimal monitoring of the species abundance, for assessment of the risk of arbovirus transmission and for the optimisation of control activities.FindingsTwo sets of 4 × 4 Latin-square experiments were carried out in Tirana (Albania) to test whether modifications in ovitrap shape and size and in oviposition substrate would increase collections of Ae. albopictus eggs and whether hay-infusion would increase adult catches by sticky trap. Generalized Linear Mixed Models with negative binomial error distribution were carried out to analyse the data. Cylindrical ovitraps lined with germination paper yielded significantly higher egg catches than those exploiting either the (commonly used) wooden paddles or floating polystyrene blocks as oviposition substrates. No difference was observed between cylindrical and conical shaped ovitraps. Ovitraps and sticky traps baited with hay infusion yielded significantly higher egg and adult catches than un-baited ones. A significant relationship between ovitrap and sticky trap catches was observed both in the absence and in the presence of attractants, with ovitrap catches increasing more than sticky trap catches at increasing adult female densities.ConclusionsThis study provides grounds for optimisation of ovitraps and sticky traps as monitoring tools for Ae. albopictus by (i) supporting use of germination paper as most appropriate oviposition substrate; (ii) suggesting the possible use of stackable conical ovitraps for large scale monitoring; (iii) confirming the use of hay-infusion to increase egg catches in ovitraps, and showing that hay-infusion also significant increases adult catches by sticky traps.
Highlights
In the last decades, Aedes albopictus has become an increasing public health threat in tropical as well as in more recently invaded temperate areas due to its capacity to transmit several human arboviruses, among which Dengue, Chikungunya and Zika
The aims of this study were to test under field conditions whether (i) some small modifications in shape and size and oviposition substrate could increase Ae. albopictus ovitrap-catches; (ii) hay-infusion could increase sticky trap catches, as already shown for ovitraps; and (iii) ovitrap and sticky traps baited with hay-infusion maintain the correlation shown to occur in the absence of the infusion [13]
Overall, 104,143 Ae. albopictus eggs were collected in Experiment 1 and 19,541 eggs, 830 adult females and 71 males were collected in Experiment 2 (Table 1)
Summary
Aedes albopictus has become an increasing public health threat in tropical as well as in more recently invaded temperate areas due to its capacity to transmit several human arboviruses, among which Dengue, Chikungunya and Zika. Aedes albopictus is the mosquito species which has been capable of the widest geographical expansion becoming a public health threat in tropical as well as in more recently invaded temperate areas due to its capacity to transmit several human arboviruses, among which Dengue, Chikungunya and Zika [1, 2]. A more direct approach to monitor the same fraction of Ae. albopictus population monitored by ovitrap (i.e. oviposting females) is represented by sticky traps, which basically are ovitraps whose internal walls, or some internal additional structures, are lined with adhesive films to which the mosquitoes approaching the traps remained stuck [12, 13]. The aims of this study were to test under field conditions whether (i) some small modifications in shape and size and oviposition substrate could increase Ae. albopictus ovitrap-catches; (ii) hay-infusion could increase sticky trap catches, as already shown for ovitraps; and (iii) ovitrap and sticky traps baited with hay-infusion maintain the correlation shown to occur in the absence of the infusion [13]
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