Evaluation of four common electronic mosquito repellers on Aedes albopictus and Culex pipiens.

Introduction: Mosquitoes represent a way of spreading infectious diseases, as vectors of pathogens. Many types of ultrasonic devices have recently been promoted as effective and suitable alternatives to the use of biocides known as toxic to humans and environment.

Materials and methods: Four ultrasonic mosquito repellers have been analysed and tested on females of two species, Culex pipiens and Aedes albopictus, in laboratory conditions. The behavior of the mosquitoes of reaching the attractant, with the repellers both at ON and OFF, was observed.

Results: The total mean number of Cx. pipiens interested to attractant when the repellers were ON was 2.8 versus 2.9 at OFF. The total mean number of Ae. albopictus interested to attractant when the repellers were ON was 5.5 versus 6.1 at OFF.

Conclusions: The repellence efficacy resulted not significant (P>0.05) in all the electronic ultrasound repellers tested. The number of mosquitoes of both species, displaying the attractant's search behavior appeared independent from the switch ON/OFF mode. Open questions remain: the need of conducting further research to establish a relationship between ultrasonic emission and mosquito effective disturbance.