Comparison of different uses of adult traps and ovitraps for assessing dengue vector infestation in endemic areas.

This report presents a set of field experiments designed to assess different protocols for the use of ovitrap and MosquiTRAP, a promising new trap for dengue vector monitoring. Percentage of positive houses, calculated either by the use of 2 traps (outside + inside) or 1 trap (outside) per house, tended to increase with time of exposure, at similar rates. When the aim was either to obtain a qualitative index (Aedes aegypti-positive site) or to determine percentage of positive houses in a selected neighborhood, the use of 1 ovitrap per house with only 5 days of exposure at the peridomestic area was quite sensitive. Seven days of exposure was too long, as saturation is expected in some places. The number of eggs collected per site increased with the time of exposure in all sites. At the 3-day trap exposure, we were not able to discriminate neighborhoods in terms of egg productivity per house. At the 5-day trap exposure, a rank of 4 sites was achieved. There was no correlation between the number of adults caught in MosquiTRAPs and number of eggs collected in ovitraps, neither per neighborhood nor per house where both traps were simultaneously exposed for 7 days in the peridomestic area.