Mosquito Traps baited with Nonanal and C02 Capture 2000 a Night

Mosquito Traps baited with Nonanal and C02 Capture 2000 a Night October 27th, 2009 | Mosquito News Science Blog: Scientists at the University of California, Davis, have identified the dominant odor naturally produced in humans and birds that attracts the blood-feeding Culex mosquitoes, which transmit West Nile virus and other life-threatening diseases. Entomology professor Walter Leal and postdoctoral researcher Zain Syed found that nonanal (sounds like NAWN-uh-nawl) is the powerful semiochemical that triggers the mosquitoes' keen sense of smell, directing them toward a blood meal. A semiochemical is a chemical substance or mixture that carries a message. Leal and Syed found that nonanal acts synergistically with carbon dioxide, a known mosquito attractant. "We baited mosquito traps with a combination of nonanal and carbon dioxide and we were drawing in as many as 2,000 a night in Yolo County, near Davis," Syed said. "Nonanal, in combination with carbon dioxide, increased trap captures by more than 50 percent, compared to traps baited with carbon dioxide alone."