Mosquitoes are a severe public health challenge that require chemical control interventions to reduce population numbers and, ultimately, the transmission of pathogens and parasites that lead to human diseases. Widespread insecticide resistance limits effective chemical control interventions, while continued insecticide applications threaten environmental health. Previous studies have shown that mosquitoes employ nectar- and blood-feeding behaviors. Sugars are important to sustain male and female flight, metabolism, development, and fecundity. There are gaps in knowledge regarding sugar sources that are required to drive the high attraction and long-term resting and feeding behaviors of mosquitoes to attract-and-kill technologies. First, we have identified desirable sugar compositions that drive the high spatial attraction of mosquitoes. Second, we have shown sugar attraction to be sex-, age-, and generation dependent with mosquitoes. Third, we have demonstrated long-term resting and feeding preference of mosquitoes to sugar-baited matrices of different size, shape, and pattern. The premise of this study is that matrices with desirable, mosquitocide-treated sugar compositions will enhance mosquito attraction, resting, and feeding which, in turn, can increase the efficacy of attract-and-kill technologies, such as ATSB stations, to reduce mosquito populations and decrease the risk of mosquito-borne pathogen and parasite transmission to humans.

Sugar compositions drive high attraction of vector mosquitoes

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ACS Fall 2022

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