Use of Aedes aegypti larvae attractants to enhance the effectiveness of larvicides.

PAULA V. GONZALEZ; LAURA HARBURGUER; PAOLA A. GONZÁLEZ AUDINO; HÉCTOR M. MASUH

Foz do Iguaçu

Congreso; I. 32nd Annual Meeting of the Internacional Society of Chemical Ecology. 4th Congress of the Latin American of Chemical Ecology.1st Joint Meeting ISCE/ALAEQ.; 2016

Aedes aegypti (L.) is an important dengue, Chikungunya, Zika and yellow fevervector. Immature stages of this species inhabit human-made containers placed in residentiallandscapes. Application of larvicides inside containers that cannot be eliminated is stillconsidered a priority in control programs.Larvicidal efficacy is influenced by several factors, including the formulation used,the water quality and the susceptibility of larvae, among others. If an attractant can beincorporated into a slow release larvicide formulation it will be feasible to direct the larvaeinto the source of insecticide and thereby improving its efficacy.We studied the influence of 1-octen-3ol and 3-methylphenol on the rate of Ae.aegypti larvae mortality using the larvicides Bacillus thuringiensis var. israelensis (Bti),temephos and spinosad. These chemicals were combined with the larvicides mixed withagar during the bioassays. Mortality was registered every 10 min and a lethal time 50(LT50) was calculated. The inclusion of the Ae. aegypti larvae attractants with the larvicidesinto a solid agar matrix improved their efficiency obtaining a strong and marked reductionin the LT50 compared with the use of larvicides alone.The results obtained in this work for Ae. aegypti could be extended to mosquitoesthat live in large water bodies, such as Anopheles or Culex considering that larvaeattractants for Culex pipiens quinquefasciatus and Anopheles gambiae have already beenidentified (Barber and Burnton 1983; Xia et al. 2008).