The Manitoba Horse Fly Trap

1964 ◽  
Vol 96 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 166-166 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. J. Thorsteinson ◽  
G. K. Bracken ◽  
W. Hanec

The development of the Manitoba Horse Fly Trap was motivated initially by the need to control tabanid flies in spite of a lack of effective and safe insecticides. This objective could be realized only through a study of orientation behaviour in the field. Starting with the old observation that tabanids are attracted to darkcoloured objects (‘targets’), the influence of colour of target, colour of background, size, shape and movement of target were investigated. The most attractive target proved to be a glossy black (or red) sphere about 24 inches diameter, about three feet above the ground. In the course of its development the trap has provided interesting insights into visual perception of tabanids which will require physiological confirmation. The attractant principle is overwhelmingly visual. An initial surmise that thermal radiation contributes to the attraction significantly has been superseded, although a thermal stimulus may be involved in the behaviour of the flies after they reach the trap. Since only the hemato- phagous sex (females) is attracted to the trap, the behaviour involved appears to be teleologically related to host seeking activity. On arrival at the trap the insects fly in the space around the target and eventually move upward into the no-return chamber at the apex. When the trap is used for fly control the apical chamber is not needed if the interior of the trap is treated with a powerful, residual insecticide. In addition to its potential uses in conjunction with insecticides for control of tabanids, the Manitoba Horse Fly Trap can be used to study the correlation of flight activity with meteorological conditions as well as the seasonal and geographical distribution of tabanid species. The trap can be used effectively in the study of Stomoxys behaviour and control. If the sphere is replaced by a wick containing organic sulfides, blow flies can be attracted to it in considerable numbers.

1970 ◽  
pp. 01-04
Author(s):  
Esameldin B. M. Kabbashi, Ghada H. Abdelrahman and Nawal A. Abdlerahman

Guava (Psidium guajava L.) is a lovely tropical and subtropical fruit that originates in Mexico, Central America, and then taken to other distant and near parts around the world. In Sudan this popular fruit is produced in orchards and household and is so profitable but yet attacked by a lot of fruit fly species of the Genera Ceratitis and Bactrocera and the result is a loss of more than 70%. This research aimed at evaluating the effect of Gum Arabic coating (GAC) in extending the shelf life of guava fruit and disinfesting it from these notorious pests. Guava fruits from Kadaro orchards, Khartoum North, were tested using seven concentrations of Gum Arabic solutions. The results reflect that 1: 4 (25%) and 1: 8 (12.5%) (GA: water) concentrations attained 56 and 40% disinfestation, respectively whereas the other lower concentrations effected corresponding results in a range from 20 – 08%. The reduction in maggots per test fruit reached upto 188% as compared to the control.  The highest concentrations (1: 4 & 1: 8) effected a sustainability of 52% in fruit firmness (FF) with an average of medium (3) FF compared to soft FF (4) in the control. The corresponding results in other lower concentrations (1: 16; 1: 32; 1: 64; 1: 72 & 1: 96) were 36, 24, 24, 20 and 16%, respectively. In addition to an average FF of 4 (soft) for all these concentrations and 5 (very soft) for all the corresponding controls. Nevertheless, the sustainability of fruit color (FC) effected by the test concentrations was 52, 44, 24, 22, 24, 20, and 24%, respectively. Regarding these results, the two highest test concentrations effected a sizeable disinfestation and control of fruit flies and a good extension of shelf life of guava in Khartoum State. These findings support using this treatment as an effective IPM tool to extend guava fruit shelf life and upgrading its postharvest quality.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Junzhi Yu ◽  
Xingyu Chen ◽  
Shihan Kong

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Junzhi Yu ◽  
Xingyu Chen ◽  
Shihan Kong

2020 ◽  
Vol 2020 ◽  
pp. 1-12
Author(s):  
Stella T. Kessy ◽  
Bruno A. Nyundo ◽  
Ladslaus L. Mnyone ◽  
Issa N. Lyimo

Reliable sources of CO2 that are relatively cheap, obtainable, and easy to sustain are immediately required for scaling up of odor-baited mosquito surveillance and control devices. Several odor-baited devices are in the pipeline; however, their scale-up against residual malaria transmission, particularly in resource poor areas, is limited by the unavailability of reliable sources of CO2 and reliance on electrical power sources among other factors. We evaluated the use of granular cyclopentanone as an alternative to artificial or yeast fermentation-produced CO2 in passive outdoor host seeking device (POHD). Experiments were conducted against semifield reared An. arabiensis within the semifield system (SFS) at Ifakara Health Institute. Mosquitoes were tested against odor-baited POHDs augmented with yeast fermentation-produced CO2, granular cyclopentanone, attractive blends (Mbita or Ifakara), or their combinations. An insecticide, bendiocarb, was a killing agent used as a proxy for marking the mosquitoes visit the POHDs. Relative attractiveness of different treatment combinations was compared based on the proportion of dead mosquitoes that visited the POHD. The POHD augmented with granules of cyclopentanone alone was attractive to An. arabiensis as much as, or more than, POHDs augmented with yeast fermentation-produced CO2. The POHD baited with CO2 attracted more mosquitoes than those POHDs baited with synthetic blends alone; when these blends are combined with CO2, they attracted more mosquitoes than individual blends. More importantly, such POHDs baited with cyclopentanone attracted far greater proportion of mosquitoes than the POHD baited with either Mbita or Ifakara blend alone. The granular cyclopentanone strongly enhanced/potentiated the attractiveness of POHD baited with Mbita blends against mosquitoes compared to that of POHD baited with Ifakara blend. Moreover, the granular cyclopentanone retained its residual activity against An. arabiensis for up to 2 months after application particularly when used in combination with Mbita blend. In conclusion, this study demonstrates that cyclopentanone granules have the potential to substitute sources of CO2 in outdoor-based surveillance and control devices, thus warranting evaluation of such alternative under realistic field conditions.


Insects ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (8) ◽  
pp. 507
Author(s):  
Younes Laidoudi ◽  
Djamel Tahir ◽  
Hacène Medkour ◽  
Marie Varloud ◽  
Oleg Mediannikov ◽  
...  

Dinotefuran-Permethrin-Pyriproxyfen (DPP) is used to kill and repel mosquitoes from dogs. However, the influence of the product on the host-seeking behavior of mosquitoes remains unknown. The interference of DPP with the host selection of unfed female Aedes albopictus was investigated. A total of 18 animals (9 mice and 9 rats) were divided into three groups of six animals each. DU: DPP treated rats (n = 3) with untreated mice (n = 3), UD: DPP treated mice (n = 3) with untreated rats (n = 3) and control UU: untreated mice (n = 3) and untreated rats (n = 3). In each group, the rats and mice were placed 30 cm apart. After sedation, the animals in each group were exposed twice (Day 1 and Day 7 post-treatment) for one hour to 71 ± 3 female mosquitoes. Mosquitoes were categorized after the 2-h post-exposure period as dead or alive. Blood-meal origin was determined from mosquitoes using a newly customized duplex qPCR. The highest values of forage ratio (1.36 ≥ wi ≤ 1.88) and selection index (0.63 ≥ Bi ≤ 0.94) for rat hosts indicates a preference of mosquitoes for this species as compared to mice when co-housed during the exposure. The mosquitoes only seldom fed on mice, even in the untreated group. The anti-feeding effect of DPP was therefore only assessed on rat’s hosts. The results showed that DPP, when directly applied on rats, provided a direct protection of 82% and 61% on Day 1 and Day 7, respectively, while when applied on mice hosts (UD), the DPP provided an indirect protection of 21% and 10% on Day 1 and Day 7, respectively. The results showed also that DPP, when applied on rats, provided a direct protection against Ae. albopictus bites. This effect did not result in increased exposure of the untreated host placed in the same cage at a distance of 30 cm.


Author(s):  
Yung-Sheng Chen ◽  
Kun-Li Lin

Eye–hand coordination (EHC) is of great importance in the research areas of human visual perception, computer vision and robotic vision. A computer-using robot (CUBot) is designed for investigating the EHC mechanism and its implementation is presented in this paper. The CUBot possesses the ability of operating a computer with a mouse like a human being. Based on the three phases of people using computer with a mouse, i.e. watching the screen, recognizing the graphical objects on the screen as well as controlling the mouse to let the cursor approach to the target, our CUBot can also perceive information merely through its vision and control the mouse by its robotic hand without any physical data communication connected to the operated computer. The CUBot is mainly composed of “Mouse-Hand” for operating the mouse, “mind” for realizing the object perception, cursor tracking, and EHC. Two experiments used for testing the ability of our EHC algorithm and the perception of CUBot confirm the feasibility of the proposed approach.


Author(s):  
Naglaa Fathy Sayed Ahmed Abou-Eid

ABSTRACT The aim of the paper is to explore the effectiveness of Communication Skills Training Program in Developing Some Visual Perception and Writing Readiness Skills for Kindergarten Children. A semi-experimental, pre-post-test for the two groups (experimental and control) was employed. Participants were 30 children. They aged between 5 and 5.7 years (M=5.3 years, SD=0.984). Two groups were constructed with equal number of children for each (experimental = 15 children, of which 9 were girls, while 6 were boys, and control = 15 children, of which 10 were girls, while 5 were boys). A program was applied to the experimental group (12 sessions; 3 sessions per week; each session lasts for 20-25 minutes, total period or application = 4 weeks, that is a month). Results advocate the effectiveness of the employed raining program.


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