United States Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service Center for Medical, Agricultural, & Veterinary Entomology

2 ARTICLES PUBLISHED IN JoVE

Environment

Visualizing Efficacy of Pesticides Against Disease Vector Mosquitoes in the Field

Seth C. Britch¹, Kenneth J. Linthicum¹, Robert L. Aldridge¹, Frances V. Golden¹, Todd W. Walker²

¹Mosquito & Fly Research Unit, United States Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service Center for Medical, Agricultural, & Veterinary Entomology, ²East Baton Rouge Mosquito Abatement and Rodent Control

The efficacy of public health pesticides targeting nuisance and disease-vector insects is not uniform across different ecological zones. Here we present a system of techniques using captive vector insects as sentinels for pesticide efficacy to derive electronic maps supporting the standard evaluation of pesticides across multiple environments.

Biology

Preparing Irradiated and Marked Male Aedes aegypti Mosquitoes for Release in an Operational Sterile Insect Technique Program

Bianca J. Moreno¹, Robert L. Aldridge¹, Seth C. Britch¹, Barbara E. Bayer¹, Jedidiah Kline¹, Daniel A. Hahn², Chao Chen², Kenneth J. Linthicum¹

¹US Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service Center for Medical, Agricultural, & Veterinary Entomology, ²Department of Entomology and Nematology, University of Florida

The sterile insect technique (SIT) is used to control specific, medically important mosquito populations that may be resistant to chemical controls. Here, we describe a method of mass rearing and preparation of sterile male mosquitoes for release in an operational SIT program targeting the Aedes aegypti mosquito.