Degener et al. 2019: Field tests of mosquito lures and traps
The growing spread of the invasive mosquito species Aedes aegypti (L.) and Aedes albopictus (Skuse) increases the complexity of mosquito control. In contrast to several other mosquito species that are found in the home environment, such as the house mosquito Culex quinquefasciatus, the container-inhabiting tiger mosquitoes are day-active. Adulticidal operations at daytime are not feasible and reaching all breeding sites in larviciding operations is practically impossible. Many home owners use mosquito traps to reduce mosquito populations in their backyards. Several traps with different attraction mechanisms and price categories are commercially available, but most of these traps were not scientifically proven to be effective.
The Biogents BG-Sentinel trap has been used by researchers all over the world for over a decade to monitor dengue vectors and is generally recognized as the gold standard mosquito trap for yellow fever and Asian tiger mosquitoes. The trap uses the BG-Sweetscent, an artificial human skin scent that contains lactic acid. The BG-Sentinel can additionally be operated with CO2 to increase catch rates and species spectrum. The commercially available BG-Mosquitaire trap uses the same mosquito attraction and collecting mechanisms as the BG-Sentinel, but instead of being lightweight and collapsible for scientific or public health purposes, it was designed to be more robust and visually pleasing, for use in fixed positions throughout the whole mosquito season in backyards, restaurants, hotels, and similar locations.
The study answered three questions:
1) Do tiger mosquito catch rates of other commercially available mosquito traps increase when adding the BG-sweetscent lure?
Yes – catch rates of tiger mosquitoes in different UV light mosquito traps increased up to 4.2-fold.

Fig 1. Biogents BG-Sweetscent increases Asian tiger mosquito catch rates in commercially available mosquito traps.
2) Is the commercially available BG-Mosquitaire trap as good as the professional BG-Sentinel trap?
Yes, there was no statistical difference between the Ae. aegypti and the Culex quinquefasciatus catch rates of the two traps, neither when tested with (Fig. 2 A), nor without CO2.

Fig 2. Boxplots of Aedes aegypti (female and male) catches in BG-Mosquitaire and BG-Sentinel traps (A) in Clovis,CA, and (B) New Orleans. The same letters indicate insignificant different catch rates.
3) Is the BG-Mosquitaire trap with and without CO2 better than two other mosquito traps that need to be obligatorily operated with CO2?
Without CO2, the BG-Mosquitaire with BG-Sweetscent is already as good as the Mosquito Magnet Patriot, and better than the SkeeterVac SV3100. With CO2, the BG-Mosquitaire collects seven to twelve times more Ae. albopictus than the other two traps

Fig. 3. Boxplots of (A) Aedes albopictus (female and male) in 4 different mosquito traps in Lake Charles, LA. Please note that 2 outliers (302 and 523 Ae. albopictus in the BG-Mosquitaire+Sweetscent+CO2) are not shown in order to facilitate visual comparison between boxes. Different letters indicate significantly different catch rates.
Read more about the results in the publication:
Degener CM, Geier M, Kline DAN, Urban J, Willis S. 2019. Field trials to evaluate the effectiveness of the BG-Sweetscent lure in combination with several commercial mosquito traps and to assess the effectiveness of the BG-Mosquitaire trap with and without carbon dioxide. 35(1):32–39. doi:10.1038/s41598-018-34161-9.
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