Diel activity patterns of vector mosquito species in the urban environment: Implications for vector control strategies

Abstract

Mathematical models have been widely used to study the population dynamics of mosquitoes as well as to test and validate the effectiveness of arbovirus outbreak responses and mosquito control strategies. The objective of this study is to assess the diel activity of mosquitoes in Miami-Dade, Florida, and Brownsville, Texas, the most affected areas during the Zika outbreak in 2016–2017, and to evaluate the effectiveness of simulated adulticide treatments on local mosquito populations. To assess variations in the diel activity patterns, mosquitoes were collected hourly for 96 hours once a month from May through November 2019 in Miami-Dade County, Florida, and Brownsville, Texas. We then performed a PERMANOVA followed by a SIMPER analysis to assess whether the abundance and species richness significantly varies at different hours of the day. Finally, we used a mathematical model to simulate the population dynamics of 5 mosquito vector species and evaluate the effectiveness of the simulated adulticide applications. A total of 14,502 mosquitoes comprising 17 species were collected in Brownsville and 10,948 mosquitoes comprising 19 species were collected in Miami-Dade County. Aedes aegypti was the most common mosquito species collected every hour in both cities and peaking in abundance in the morning and the evening. Our modeling results indicate that the effectiveness of adulticide applications varied greatly depending on the hour of the treatment. In both study locations, 9 PM was the best time for adulticide applications targeting all mosquito vector species; mornings/afternoons (9 AM– 5 PM) yielded low effectiveness, especially for Culex species, while at night (12 AM– 6 AM) the effectiveness was particularly low for Aedes species. Our results indicate that the timing of adulticide spraying interventions should be carefully considered by local authorities based on the ecology of the target mosquito species in the focus area.

Comparing the effectiveness of adulticide application interventions on mitigating local transmission of dengue virus

“…al. 13 do translate into an epidemiological effect for DENV transmission and support the relevance of collecting data on mosquito diel activity patterns.…”

“…Wilke et. al., identified the entomological effects of adulticide spraying during different times of the day 13 .…”

“…Due to the scarcity of diel activity data, this important aspect is often overlooked in adulticide spraying planning and application. Wilke et al 13 , leveraged a unique diel activity patterns dataset to identify the most effective adulticide spraying interventions and have shown that adulticide spraying was substantially more effective in reducing the mosquito population during certain times of day compared to others. However, how this effect on the mosquito population translates into an effect on DENV transmission remains unclear.…”

Aedes albopictuscolonies from different geographic origins differ in their sleep and activity levels but not in the time of peak activity

“…albopictus. Many of these studies have used a variety of methods to measure their activity, in particular field-based captures (Delatte et al 2010, de Lima-Camara 2010, Casas Martínez et al 2013, Unlu et al 2021, Wilke et al 2023). Here, we used activity monitors to record mosquitoes’ activity patterns over a five-day period under constant temperature and humidity conditions, regular light/dark cycles, and in the absence of host cues.…”

“…For example, previous studies on Ae. aegypti , highlighted the importance of applying adulticide treatments at the proper time of day based on the targeted mosquito population’s activity (Wilke et al 2023). In the malaria vector Anopheles gambiae, strain-specific differences in total daily activity were also observed (Rund et al 2012).…”