Abstract
Outdoor transmission of malaria and other vector borne diseases remains a problem. The WHO has recently recognized the need for suitable methods for assessing vector density outdoors and a number of tent-traps have been developed. Only one such trap, the Furvela tent-trap, does not require an ‘entry’ behavior on the part of the mosquito. It remains the cheapest and lightest tent-trap described. It takes less than two minutes to install and is the only trap that uses readily available components. Here we describe recent modifications to the trap, which make it even easier to set up in the field, provide a standard operating procedure (SOP) and describe some recent experiments examining the effect of the addition of light and door placement to working of the trap. The trap provides the closest approximation to CDC light-traps, widely used to collect indoor biting mosquitoes. This enables the effect of both indoor and outdoor interventions on mosquito density and behavior to be determined.
Highlights
With the current drive to eliminate malaria, worldwide reductions in the burden of the disease have occurred (Bhatt et al, 2015)
The outdoor biting fraction of the population by employing a Centre for Disease Control (CDC) light-trap hung adjacent to an occupied, open-sided rain shelter constructed from a domed one-man tent but concluded that such traps were a ‘limitation’ of their study
All but one are similar to the gazebo of DeMeillon (1934) in that they require an ‘entry’ behaviour on the part of the mosquitoes for them to be caught. The usefulness of these ‘other’ tent-traps is undetermined because not all mosquitoes go inside houses and, as pointed out by Gillies (1974) ‘the effectiveness of a baited trap for a particular species of fly primarily depends on its responses to the trapping device in the presence of the attractant stimuli used’. One trap, the, so-called ‘Furvela’ tent-trap, does not require such an entry behaviour from the mosquito and is more likely to sample the ‘true’ outdoor fraction of the population
Summary
With the current drive to eliminate malaria, worldwide reductions in the burden of the disease have occurred (Bhatt et al, 2015). Collections in the Furvela tent-trap are closely correlated to CDC light-trap collections used to monitor indoor biting mosquitoes (Govella et al, 2009, Charlwood et al, 2011, 2012) This makes it especially useful for the measurement of changes in indoor/outdoor ratios following the application of methods to control indoor biting mosquitoes. These make it even easier to set up in the field, but do not affect its basic operation We describe these modifications, discuss some recent experiments to examine the effect that the addition of a light to the trap has on numbers caught and provide a short review of work so far performed with the trap from Africa.
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