USDA-ARS Center for Medical, Agricultural and Veterinary Entomology Gainesville, Florida, United States
Abstract: Treating the perimeter of US military materials, such as camouflage netting, with standard residual pesticides may protect the health and morale of US military personnel in the field by reducing incursion of disease vectoring or nuisance biting insects, such as mosquitoes or sand flies, into protected areas. However, standard residual pesticides rely on target insects resting on treated surfaces to accumulate lethal doses, while those that do not contact the treatment may still host seek. Furthermore, high mortality and sub-lethal exposure from standard residuals can result in the development of resistance and subsequent loss of efficacy. Emerging availability of diverse spatial repellents and toxicants, such as transfluthrin, offers an alternative to standard residual formulations and, if used to maximize their spatial repellent characteristics and not rely on mortality, are less likely to induce resistance. Residual applications of spatial repellents form a volatile plume, allowing target insects the opportunity to escape prior to lethal exposure and interaction with a host. While mortality from spatial repellents may occur if insects linger or become trapped in the volatile plume, those escaping will help maintain a population of susceptible insects. In this study we investigated the capability of transfluthrin and a novel formulation with the potential to be a spatial repellent, to repel endemic mosquito populations from entering protected camouflage netting enclosures and present differences in efficacy when deployed in a north Florida forest.
