Cost Effective ~ Safe ~ Mosquito Solutions

The Mosquito Science Lethal Ovitrap has been extensively tested against
Aedes aegypti.

Poster with summary of all test results.

Laboratory testing:
Mortality of adult females of 98% or greater was achieved in caged experiments. When young larvae were added to the Lethal OviTrap (LOT), 100% larval mortality occurred. In cups that had been flooded with the equivalent of 6.2 cm of rain, or the water allowed to evaporate from the cups to within 1 inch of the bottom, 59% or greater mortality of adult females occurred. When young larvae were added to the cup, 100% larval mortality occurred. Treated lethal strips that had been used for one month in a Brazilian field trial still provided 89% adult female control in caged laboratory experiments and when young larvae were added to the cup, 99.5% larval mortality occurred within 6 hours [2].

Field Trials:
Several field trials have been conducted with blocks of housing in different areas being used as treated and control sites. In Brazil, field trials were conducted at two different sites [3]. Control sites were only surveyed for insects, while treated sites received 5 LOT’s inside and 5 LOT’s outside each house. Weekly surveys for larvae, pupae, and adults were conducted by sampling a different subset of 10 houses each week. After 60 days, the treated blocks had only 0.27 (Area 1) and 0.72 (Area 2) pupae per household versus untreated blocks with 10.04 and 8.3 pupae per household, respectively [3]. Although an epidemiological study was not conducted, these results show the mosquitoes were suppressed below the 0.5 to 1.5 pupae per person threshold levels for dengue transmission, as determined by a model developed by Focks, et. al., [4]. The highest number of pupae per house in the Brazilian field trials was 0.72. Even assuming only 2 occupants per house, a density of 0.36 pupa per person is still below the lowest threshold estimate for dengue transmission.

The LOT was found to be very effective in two Peruvian sites (Perich, Zeichner, unpublished data) where the number of pupae per household was 0 in the treated blocks compared to 1.0 and 1.4 in the two untreated blocks. The number of positive LOT’s decreased by 88% and 96% in the two treated blocks and the adult population was decreased 92% and 98% respectively. A study done in Thailand in 2000 also found “significant suppression was achieved” based on number of containers with larvae, containers with pupae and number of adult Ae. aegypti [5]. Although less control was achieved than in the Brazil trials, it is believed that an abundance of alternative sites provided significant competition for the 10 LOT’s. Control would have been enhanced if more ovitraps had been used per house. A study done in Bangladesh found that the LOT had a sustained impact on dengue vector population densities and concluded that it “would be a useful control method, particularly where sanitation programs have been implemented with some degree of success[6].”