Odor emission from a trap for the vectors of Chagas disease depending of its physical attributes

GUIDOBALDI F; GUERENSTEIN PG

Huerta Grande - COR

Congreso; 2nd Meeting of the Latin American Association for Chemical Ecology; 2012

Asociacion Latinoamericana de Ecologia Quimica, CICYTTP-CONICET, Fac. Agronomia-UBA

Chagas disease vector's management is currently mainly accomplished byinsecticide spraying of infested houses. However, this is not ideal considering thatthe insects could develop resistance to the insecticides, and that these chemicalscould affect people living in sprayed houses. The use of trap devices to capturethe insects could help monitor and control the bugs without generating anyresistance or toxic effect for humans. One method to capture walking bugs isbased on the use of adhesive tape. This method has been used to intercept bugsmoving between different habitats [1]. Adhesive tape is also used as the trappingagent of the popular Noireau trap, baited with a mouse [2]. However, it is notknown if, after being immobilized, the adults stuck become stressed and henceemit their alarm pheromone thus repelling conspecifics. If so, this could result inan overlooked reduction in the trapping performance of the device being used. Tostudy this, we evaluated the effect of the presence of bugs stuck in adhesive tapeon the capture performance of a trap lured with a mouse. Fifth-instar Triatomainfestans bugs starved for 1 month were tested, singly, in an experimental arena,overnight. Three experimental series were carried out: in series 1 the trap justcontained a mouse, in series 2 the trap contained a mouse plus 10 T.infestansadults free to move inside it (but not allowed to contact the mouse), and in series3 the trap contained a mouse plus 10 T. infestans adults stuck to adhesive tape(importantly, those bugs were stuck to the tape by their own). Results show thatthe presence of insects (stuck or not) inside the lured traps do not affect capture.The percentage of capture in all series was 100%. Our results suggest that theuse of adhesive tape as immobilization method in traps could be used withoutcompromising attraction/trapping effectiveness