An adulticidal sticky ovitrap for sampling container-breeding mosquitoes

The efficacy of a standard ovitrap and an ovitrap featuring an internal wall covered by a polybutylene adhesive was compared in field studies in Cairns, Australia. The sticky ovitrap was as effective as the standard ovitrap in detecting Aedes aegypti, with 67.5% and 64% of traps positive for Ae. aegypti, respectively. Significantly higher numbers of Ae. aegypti were collected by traps set outside rather than inside premises. Sticky ovitraps also readily collected Ochlerotatus notoscriptus and, especially, Culex quinquefasciatus. With a 10X hand lens, mosquitoes of these species could readily be identified in traps set for 3 and 7 days. The sticky ovitraps were comparable in cost and as time efficient as standard ovitraps. The greatest advantage of the sticky ovitrap is the collection of adult female mosquitoes, negating the need to rear larvae for identification and providing a faster, more direct measure of the effectiveness of ovipositional attractants than egg counts. Finally, we demonstrated that sticky ovitraps, being adulticidal, have potential as a supplementary control measure, especially for quarantine programs designed to prevent the import and export of container-breeding vector mosquitoes at sea- and airports.