COMPARING DETECTIONS OF AEDES AEGYPTI FEMALES USING THREE TYPES OF AUTOCIDAL GRAVID TRAPS

We compared the number of Aedes aegypti females per trap and the number of detections of this mosquito species per week during 8 wk in 3 types of autocidal gravid traps, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Autocidal Gravid Ovitrap (AGO), Biogents Gravid Aedes Trap (GAT), and Singapore Gravitrap (SGT), in central Puerto Rico. These traps use the same principles for attracting gravid Ae. aegypti females as traditional ovitraps, such as dark colors, standing water, and decomposing plant materials. The traps differ in size, AGO being the biggest and SGT the smallest. Average captures of female Ae. aegypti per trap per week were 11.1, 7.2, and 1.7 in AGO, GAT, and SGT traps, respectively, a pattern consistent with the sizes of the traps. These results indicated that GAT traps and SGT traps captured 35.5% and 84.7% fewer females of Ae. aegypti, respectively, than AGO traps. Although Ae. aegypti was present in all 20 sites during the 8 wk of observations, AGO, GAT, and SGT traps did not catch specimens in 1, 9, and 58 out of 160 observations per trap type (trap-wk), respectively. Trap failures were 1, 6, and 1 for the AGO, GAT, and SGT traps, respectively. Despite the absence of females of Ae. aegypti at some sites and weeks in each of the traps, all 3 traps were able to detect the presence of this mosquito at each of the 20 sites during the 8 wk of observations and could be used for Ae. aegypti surveillance.