Floral attractants for Aedes aegypti and their incorporation in solid slow release formulations

MASUH HECTOR; S. VON OPPEN; P GONZALEZ AUDINO

Congreso; 5th Congress of the Latin American Association of Chemical Ecology; 2018

Universidad Pontificia Valparaiso

The Aedes aegypti mosquitoinhabits almost exclusively urban areas. The female?s marked preferences forhuman blood-feeding turns her into an efficient vectorof mosquito borne diseases, such as: Dengue Fever, Yellow Fever, ChikungunyaandZika. This research focuses on the effects of plant volatile compounds onadult mosquito behavior, with the aim of gaining insights that could be appliedin anintegrated management of mosquitoes, with a low environmental impact.An initial screening was performed to assess the adult mosquito?s preference toplants commonly present in the domestic environment. Further assayswereperformed in an olfactometer, to determine if olfactory cues were also involvedin the mosquitoes? attraction towards the plants.Flower cuttings were tested as bait in a toxic end-point bioassay, whichincludeda pesticide. An increased mortality was observed in females with the cuttingsof thefollowing plants: L. maritima andE. pectinatus; and in males a highermortality wasobserved with L. maritima, E.pectinatus and S. madagascariensis.The compositions of the volatile compounds of the plants with flowers thatprovedattractant in the olfactometer were also tested in the olfactometer. Thevolatilecompounds that were attractant to females were: (+)-α-pineneand acetophenone;and only 1-nonene was attractant to males.Disks made from stearin or paraffin, with different amounts of 1-nonene oracetophenone, were formulated. They were also tested as baits, with apesticide, in a toxic end-point bioassay. The disks made from both materials,with 1-nonene or acetophenone, proved to be attractant to mosquitoes of bothgenders.The results that were obtained through this research, suggest that it ispossible touse plant volatile compounds and plant cuttings as mosquito attractants whichcould potentially be included as baits in mosquito traps.