Influence of the microencapsulated pheromone from aged infusion as an oviposition medium of the West Nile virus vector Culex pipiens.

The main tendency for the control of West Nile virus vectors, without the presence of disease, is to perform integrated programs minimizing chemicals by using environmentally friendly substances which act as oviposition attractants such as oviposition pheromones and infusions. This is the first time that an aged infusion is combined with aged pheromone (microencapsulated). Initially, three common plants in Greece were evaluated as a potential oviposition medium: Oxalis pes-carpae, Jasminum polyanthum, and Avena barbata. All revealed an excellent oviposition attractancy which was more than 80%. O. pes-carpae was used for further investigation and attractancy over time was also studied. Finally, the combination of the synthetic pheromone (6-acetoxy-5-hexadecanolide) with the O. pes-carpae infusion revealed a synergistic effect only for the first day. This project was a first detection for the potential use of microencapsulated synthetic pheromone with infusion and results are discussed.

Attract-and-kill strategy. Laboratory studies on hatched larvae of Culex pipiens.

The attract-and-kill strategy is a new pest management technique that presupposes the intelligent combination of an attracting agent (e.g. pheromone) and a killing agent (e.g. insecticide). In the present study, the potential combination of the microencapsulated synthetic oviposition pheromone 6-acetoxy-5-hexadecanolide with an insecticide has been tested. Initially, polyurea microcapsules containing 6-acetoxy-5-hexadecanolide, the synthetic mixture of diastereomers of the oviposition pheromone of the mosquito species Culex quinquefasciatus Say (Diptera: Culicidae), were studied. Laboratory bioassays were performed to confirm the bioactivity of the microencapsulated pheromone on the oviposition activity of Culex pipiens L. biotype molestus Førskal (Diptera: Culicidae) with the aim of determining the optimum dose for oviposition response. Its effect was dose dependent, revealing an optimum dose of 300 mg of dried microcapsules. Attractancy over time was also studied. The microencapsulated pheromone was found to be sufficiently attractive to gravid female mosquitoes for a period of 40 days. Finally, the combination of the synthetic pheromone with the control agent temephos showed both an acceptable oviposition activity and sufficient larvicidal effect.

Oviposition responses of culex pipiens to a synthetic racemic Culex quinquefasciatus oviposition aggregation pheromone.

The oviposition pheromone of Culex quinquefasciatus was synthesized in a racemic form in a simple (five steps), efficient, high yielding (45% total yield), and low cost way (use of relatively low cost reagents). Our synthetic racemic pheromone (SRP) was tested in the laboratory for its bioactivity on Culex pipiens biotype molestus, which is a member of the species complex that Culex quinquefasciatusbelongs. In the testing conditions, bioactivity at the doses of 0.01, 0.1, 1, and 10 microg per cage was found with the best bioactivity achieved at 1 mug per cage. The effectiveness of our SRP offers a capable tool for improving mosquito oviposition traps for surveillance or even control programs.

First total synthesis of trans- and cis-resorcylide: remarkable hydrogen-bond-controlled, stereospecific ring-closing metathesis.

[reaction: see text] Stereospecific synthesis of the pair of natural macrolides, trans- and cis-resorcylide, was performed using ring-closing metathesis on dienes 3 and 4, which lack or feature an intramolecular H-bond, respectively. An effective Stille carbonylative coupling of benzyl chlorides 11 and 15 was employed for their preparation. The influence of intramolecular H-bonding on the interconversions of resorcylides was also studied.