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FIELD TEST OF AN AUTOCIDAL CONTROL METHOD WITH THE FERAL MOSQUITO CULEX RESTUANS (DIPTERA: CULICIDAE)1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  31 May 2012

G. K. Bracken  and
M. G. Maw
G. K. Bracken
Affiliation:
Research Station, Canada Department of Agriculture, Winnipeg, Manitoba
M. G. Maw
Affiliation:
Research Station, Canada Department of Agriculture, Regina, Saskatchewan
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Abstract

An autocidal control method involving attraction of ovipositing females to artificial oviposition sites, rearing and chemical sterilization of adults reared from the collected eggs, and release of sterilized males back into the system was field tested with the mosquito Culex restuans Theobald. This species cannot be cultured continuously. The average weekly percentage of sterile egg rafts was 2.4 (range 0.3–16.0) in the test area where sterile males were released (av. 9620/wk) and 5.3 (range 1.5–30.0) in the area where both sterile males (av. 7000/wk) and untreated females (av. 4590/wk) were released. The low level of sterility achieved is attributed to infiltration of gravid females from outside the experimental areas, poor efficiency in producing sterile males from the collected egg rafts, and the small scale of the test.

A hypothetical model is used to compare theoretical reduction in rates of increase of a population of mosquitoes when various proportions are induced to oviposit in ‘trap’ pools if the eggs trapped are destroyed, reared to produce sterile males for release, or reared to produce sterile males for release in conjunction with larvicidal treatment of uncontrolled breeding areas.

Type
Articles
Information
The Canadian Entomologist , Volume 107 , Issue 5 , May 1975 , pp. 465 - 470
Copyright
Copyright © Entomological Society of Canada 1975

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