The MosHouse(®) Trap: Evaluation of the Efficiency in Trapping Sterile Aedes aegypti Males in Semi-Field Conditions

SIMPLE SUMMARY: Trapping mosquitoes, especially those that are vectors, is important in evaluating disease control programs. So far, mosquito-collecting tools that are inexpensive and highly effective in collecting Aedes aegypti, the main mosquito vector of dengue, chikungunya, and Zika viruses, are not available. In particular, male trapping is necessary for monitoring control efforts that use released sterile males. In this study, we evaluate the efficiency of a simple and low-cost MosHouse sticky trap in collecting Ae. aegypti in a semi-field condition. When comparing the MosHouse traps with the Biogents’ BG-Sentinel traps, which are widely used for collecting Aedes mosquitoes, the results showed no significant difference in the numbers of collected males but significantly lower numbers of females were collected using the MosHouse traps. We also found that sterilizing males by radiation significantly increased their collection when using the MosHouse traps. Improvements were made to the MosHouse trap to increase male collection by adding a sugar stick and sticky flags—the latter increasing the number of trapped males but not females when they were released separately, while the number of both males and females increased when they were released together. In summary, the MosHouse trap was proved to be efficient and could be used as an alternative collecting tool in Ae. aegypti control programs. ABSTRACT: Arbovirus diseases, such as dengue, chikungunya, and Zika, are important public health problems. Controlling the major vector, Aedes aegypti, is the only approach to suppressing these diseases. The surveillance of this mosquito species needs effective collecting methods. In this study, a simple MosHouse sticky trap was evaluated in a semi-field condition. Our results demonstrated the efficiency of this trap in collecting Ae. aegypti males, and no significant difference (p > 0.05) in the numbers of males was detected when compared with the widely used BG- Sentinel trap. However, there were significantly lower numbers of females (p < 0.05) collected using the MosHouse trap when compared to the BG-Sentinel trap. We also found a significant difference (p < 0.05) in the collected numbers between irradiated and non-irradiated males. More irradiated males were collected in the MosHouse traps. The improvement of male collection was achieved with the addition of a sugar stick and sticky flags. Significantly higher numbers of males were collected in the MosHouse trap with sticky flags compared to the original one when they were released independently of females, but both were collected in higher numbers when they were released together (p < 0.05). In conclusion, our experiments demonstrated that the MosHouse trap could sample Ae. aegypti, especially males, as efficiently as the established BG-Sentinel trap, while the cost was more than 50 times lower, showing the potential of the MosHouse trap for improved Ae. aegypti male and female surveillance with very large numbers of traps at affordable costs. In addition, significantly (p < 0.001) increased male sampling was achieved by adding an external sticky flag on the MosHouse trap, providing an avenue for further development of the novel male-trapping strategy.