Archive for 'research'

Cockroach personalities and urban pest management

Have you ever wondered why certain commercial or residential areas get reinfested by cockroaches sooner even though cockroach treatment was more or less uniform in all areas? Differences in environmental characteristics like temperature, humidity, and availability of food and hideaways surely contribute to the persistence of these pests in such problem areas. But there is another factor that is less often considered when designing a pest management program for German cockroaches: personalities. For example, there are variations in the attraction of German cockroaches to baits. Entomologists and pest…

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Aedes aegypti by Anjo de Batalha

Are you wondering how those pesky mosquitoes find hosts to victimize? Results of flight tunnel studies on the mosquito Aedes aegypti, the vector of dengue fever virus, revealed that carbon dioxide detected as turbulent plume leads to more directed flight upwind by the pest. A plume of this gas that is fluctuating in concentration and mimicking the presence of a live host elicited the best response. Carbon dioxide alone, without host odor, is enough to induce directed flight toward the source. This first encounter with the gas is…

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