Thesis subject

How to catch a mosquito? The flight response of mosquitoes to odors and air gusts produced by odor-baited traps.

We study the way mosquitoes detect and react to odors and air gusts to learn about their flight capacity and behaviors when host searching and escaping.

PI: Florian Muijres

In the fight against malaria mosquitoes, new solutions are needed due to their increasing resistance to pesticide (WHO, 2015). One novel vector control strategy that is potentially very successful, is massive mosquito trapping using odor-baited traps (Homan et al., 2016). Odor-baited traps create a circulatory airflow that dissipates attractive odors to attract mosquitoes; when approaching the trap, the mosquitoes are then sucks into the trap and killed (Figure 1).

Using a combined experimental and computational approach, we study the flight dynamics and aerodynamics of mosquitoes that approach and evade odor-baited traps. This will enable us to obtain a better understanding of the mosquito’s flight capabilities and its limitations and which we can use to develop novel strategies for capturing malaria mosquitoes.

Figure 1: Cross-sectional view of an odor-baited mosquito trap, the Suna trap by BioGents AB (figure adapted from Hiscox et al., 2014).
Figure 1: Cross-sectional view of an odor-baited mosquito trap, the Suna trap by BioGents AB (figure adapted from Hiscox et al., 2014).
Figure 2: Anopheles sp. malaria mosquito. Public domain image by Alex Wild, Insects Unlocked project at the University of Texas at Austin
Figure 2: Anopheles sp. malaria mosquito. Public domain image by Alex Wild, Insects Unlocked project at the University of Texas at Austin

Our collaborators are: Dr. Alexandra Hiscox and Ir. Jeroen Spitzen (Laboratory of Entomology, Wageningen University & Research), Martin Geier (BioGents AG, Germany), and Prof. Jerome Casas (IRBI, University of Tours and CNRS, France).

This project is financially supported by a personal grant to Antoine Cribellier from the WIAS Graduate Programme 2015.

References:

Hiscox, A., Otieno, B., Kibet, A., Mweresa, C. K., Omusula, P., Geier, M., Rose, A., Mukabana, W. R. and Takken, W. (2014). Development and optimization of the Suna trap as a tool for mosquito monitoring and control. Malar. J. 13, 257.

Homan, T., Hiscox, A., Mweresa, C. K., Masiga, D., Mukabana, W. R., Oria, P., Maire, N., Pasquale, A. Di, Silkey, M., Alaii, J., et al. (2016). The effect of mass mosquito trapping on malaria transmission and disease burden (SolarMal): a stepped-wedge cluster-randomised trial. Lancet 0, 207–211.

WHO (2015). World Malaria Report. World Health 238.