A study was conducted to identify the responses of Aedes albopictus to different diet regime towards the development of juvenile and adult mosquitoes. Fish pellet was selected as standard diet in order to study the effect of diet regime on the development of Ae. Albopictus. Four different diet regimes (1.0 mg, 0.6 mg, 1.0 mg an1.6 mg) were tested on 50 eggs of Ae. albopictus under laboratory conditions. Juvenile development until adult emergence was observed and recorded. Results indicated that the time taken to mature the mosquitoes was significantly affected by the diet regime. Furthermore, juvenile body size and adult wing size of Ae. albopictus were found to be greatly affected by diet regime exposed during juvenile stages. In summary, an increase of diet regime resulted in the decrease of developmental time and an increase in juvenile body size and adult wing size.
Introduction: An experimental study was conducted to determine the effects of synthetic chemical artificial toxic sugar bait (ATSB) on adult Aedes albopictus population in a controlled environment. The method uses an “attract and kill” concept and makes use of mosquito’s sugar-feeding behaviour. Formulations of ATSB consists of natural scents as an attractant, a sugar solution as a feeding stimulant and an oral toxin such as boric acid to eliminate mos- quito population. Methods: The experiment was conducted in two phases; (i) the first phase aimed to determine the optimum sucrose concentration (10%, 30%, 50% and 70%) that will elicit the highest biting and fecundity rates in female mosquitoes and (ii) the second phase aimed to identify the ATSB, optimum sucrose from phase one incorpo- rated with boric acid (0.1%,0.5% and 1%), that cause the highest mortality rates of adult female Aedes albopictus in a laboratory environment. Results: Seventy percent sucrose concentration was selected as the optimum sucrose concentration because the ingestion of the solution cause the highest biting and fecundity rates in mosquito compare to other sucrose concentrations. Meanwhile, 1% boric acid resulted in the highest mortality rate within two days of the experiment period. Conclusion: This study has identified the optimum sucrose concentration required to attract adult mosquitoes and highlighted the efficacy of 1% boric acid as an effective mosquito adulticide. The findings highlight the potential of ATSB as a valuable vector control method which could be further developed for future use.