Formulation and testing of different infused attractive sugar baits (ASBs) in sodium alginate against laboratory...

Sugar-feeding is essential to mosquitoes with both sexes that often interacting with flowering plants to acquire sugar. Alginate Sugar Baits are made up of sodium alginate (ALG) which is a safe, natural, and biodegradable polymer. The Alginate Sugar Baits are infused with sugar variants making them Attractive Sugar Baits (ASBs) as a means of providing long-term efficacy to enhance mosquito attraction. However, fundamental gaps in understanding the characteristics of ASBs and the attraction of mosquitoes towards it limits the efficacy of utilizing such bait technology. Testing of non-choice and choice assay of different group of ASBs towards Aedes aegypti to demonstrate the effectiveness of ASBs as a potential baiting tool was performed using 30 % v/v of mango, 25 % v/v of Chrysanthemum, 30 % v/v of mix and sucrose ASBs. These formulations assessed using Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscope (FESEM), Energy Dispersive X-ray (EDX), Ultraviolet-Visible-Near Infrared Spectroscopy (UV-VIS-NIR), Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR) and X-ray Diffraction (XRD) analysis. Results indicated that the 30 % mango ASB achieved the highest mosquito attraction, with a mean attraction of (34.17 ± 7.94), optimal reflectance (8 %) and absorbance (3.1 units). These ASBs are recommended as highly promising candidates as an alternative for repellent insecticides, serving as baiting tools for mosquito attraction.