Abstract
Mosquito traps have been used for longtime as mosquito monitoring tools in research or mosquito control program. If the first light-traps targeted nocturnal mosquitoes and others insects, then, more sophisticated and mosquito focused devices were developed using carbon-dioxide and animal specific odours (kaironomes). With the increasing concern of environmental impact and mosquito resistance to insecticide-based methods to control larval and imaginal mosquito population, traps have been tested and introduced as complementary tools in mosquito control strategies. In this study, we tested the effectiveness of mass trapping in barrier design with carbon dioxide baited traps against salt-marsh mosquitoes, as a complementary tool in larviciding controlled area. This experiment was conducted in three campsites along the french Mediterranean wet-coast between summer and autumn 2022. The targeted species were floodwater mosquito species with anthropophilic preferences like Aedes caspius and Aedes detritus who represents a year-long nuisance. Mosquito Magnet traps (MM) were set in a barrier design around campsites to avoid mosquitoes from entering and were active 24h/24h, whereas BG-Protector traps (BGP) traps were set within the campsites, close to human, with the aim of diverting mosquitoes away from humans at peak activity during 3 hours at sunrise and 3 hours at sunset. During the 12 weeks of monitoring, over 210,000 mosquitoes of 11 species from 4 genera were collected by traps across treatment campsites, with no significant differences in mosquito community samplings between BGP and MM traps. Traps were effective at trapping Ae. caspius, reducing total mosquito abundance in two of the three study sites by 34% and 55%. This study provides valuable insights into the efficacy and feasibility of using mass trapping barriers as a complementary control strategy for mosquito species in floodwater it also highlighted the costs and operational limits of this kind of devices.