Bacillus thuringiensis var. israelensis misting for control of Aedes in cryptic ground containers in north Queensland, Australia.

In Australia, dengue is not endemic, although the vector mosquito Aedes aegypti is established in far north Queensland (FNQ). Aedes albopictus has recently invaded the Torres Strait region, but is not established on mainland Australia. To maintain dengue-free, public health departments in FNQ closely monitor introduced dengue infections and confine outbreaks through rigorous vector control responses. To safeguard mainland Australia from Ae. albopictus establishment, pre-emptive strategies are required to reduce its breeding in difficult to access habitats. We compare the residual efficacy of VectoBac WDG, Bacillus thuringiensis var. israelensis (Bti) formulation, as a residual treatment when misted across a typical FNQ bushland using a backpack mister (Stihl SR 420 Mist Blower) at two dose rates up to 16 m. Semi-field condition results, over 16 weeks, indicate that Bti provided high mortality rates (> 80%) sustained for 11 weeks. Mist application penetrated 16 m of dense bushland without efficacy decline over distance.

Bacillus thuringiensis var. israelensis (Bti) provides residual control of Aedes aegypti in small containers.

We examined the use of megadoses of VectoBac WG for residual control of Aedes aegypti in 2-L plastic buckets. Doses of 10x, 20x, and 50x the recommended rate of 8 mg/L provided >/= 90% control for 8, 8, and 23 weeks, respectively. There was no significant difference in mortality between dry (neat) or aqueous mixture of VectoBac WG. Pretreatment of dry containers up to 8 weeks before flooding did not significantly decrease efficacy through 11 success weeks. Thus, megadoses of dry formulations of Bti can be used for residual control of Ae. aegypti in small containers. Furthermore, these doses use small amounts of product (0.08-0.4 g/L) that is more practical to measure than the minute amounts (0.008 g/L) required by the recommended rate, and cost US$2.18 to treat 50 Cairns yards containing an average total of 80 containers. This method could also be used to control Aedes albopictus.

Field validation of a transcriptional assay for the prediction of age of uncaged Aedes aegypti mosquitoes in Northern Australia.

BACKGROUND: New strategies to eliminate dengue have been proposed that specifically target older Aedes aegypti mosquitoes, the proportion of the vector population that is potentially capable of transmitting dengue viruses. Evaluation of these strategies will require accurate and high-throughput methods of predicting mosquito age. We previously developed an age prediction assay for individual Ae. aegypti females based on the transcriptional profiles of a selection of age responsive genes. Here we conducted field testing of the method on Ae. aegypti that were entirely uncaged and free to engage in natural behavior. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: We produced "free-range" test specimens by releasing 8007 adult Ae. aegypti inside and around an isolated homestead in north Queensland, Australia, and recapturing females at two day intervals. We applied a TaqMan probe-based assay design that enabled high-throughput quantitative RT-PCR of four transcripts from three age-responsive genes and a reference gene. An age prediction model was calibrated on mosquitoes maintained in small sentinel cages, in which 68.8% of the variance in gene transcription measures was explained by age. The model was then used to predict the ages of the free-range females. The relationship between the predicted and actual ages achieved an R(2) value of 0.62 for predictions of females up to 29 days old. Transcriptional profiles and age predictions were not affected by physiological variation associated with the blood feeding/egg development cycle and we show that the age grading method could be applied to differentiate between two populations of mosquitoes having a two-fold difference in mean life expectancy. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: The transcriptional profiles of age responsive genes facilitated age estimates of near-wild Ae. aegypti females. Our age prediction assay for Ae. aegypti provides a useful tool for the evaluation of mosquito control interventions against dengue where mosquito survivorship or lifespan reduction are crucial to their success. The approximate cost of the method was US$7.50 per mosquito and 60 mosquitoes could be processed in 3 days. The assay is based on conserved genes and modified versions are likely to support similar investigations of several important mosquito and other disease vectors.

The effects of sustained release metofluthrin on the biting, movement, and mortality of Aedes aegypti in a domestic setting.

The impact of a sustained release metofluthrin emanator and an allethrin-based mosquito coil on biting, movement and mortality of female Aedes aegypti was assessed in an apartment. In the room in which the metofluthrin emanator was activated, mosquito biting counts were reduced to zero. Metofluthrin also had a spillover effect, significantly (P < 0.001) reducing biting counts in a neighboring room 1, 4, and 24 hours after the emanator was activated when compared with either the coil or control (untreated) treatment. Mosquitoes were neither repelled nor expelled from a room exposed to metofluthrin. Indeed, a significantly (P = 0.023) greater proportion of mosquitoes were found in the treated room after exposure to metofluthrin when compared with either the coil or control treatment. Furthermore, in the room treated with metofluthrin the majority of mosquitoes died and a spillover effect into the neighboring room caused greater than one-third mortality of the mosquitoes. Metofluthrin could be used to prevent dengue transmission within a household.

Rapid estimation of Aedes aegypti population size using simulation modeling, with a novel approach to calibration and field validation.

New approaches for control of the dengue vector Aedes aegypti (L.) are being developed, including the potential introduction of life-shortening symbiont bacteria into field populations and the release of transgenic strains with reduced vector competency. With these new approaches comes the need for rapid estimations of existing field population size. Here, we describe the use of simulation modeling with container-inhabiting mosquito simulation (CIMSiM) for estimation of Ae. aegypti pupal crop size in north Queensland, Australia. CIMSiM was calibrated for local conditions by deploying "sentinel key containers" (tire, 2-liter plastic bucket, 0.6-liter pot plant base, and tarpaulin indentation) in which water flux and pupal productivity were studied for 72 d. Iterative adjustment of CIMSiM parameters was used to fit model outputs to match that of sentinel key containers. This calibrated model was then used in a blind field validation, in which breeding container and local meteorological data were used to populate CIMSiM, and model outputs were compared with a field pupal survey. Actual pupae per ha during two 10-d periods in 2007 fell within 95% confidence intervals of simulated pupal crop estimates made by 10 replicate simulations in CIMSiM, thus providing a successful field validation. Although the stochasticity of the field environment can never be wholly simulated, CIMSiM can provide field-validated estimates of pupal crop in a timely manner by using simple container surveys.