Author's personal copy Acta Tropica 117 (2011) 131–136 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Acta Tropica journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/actatropica A multimodal bait for trapping blood-sucking arthropods Julien Ryelandt a , Franc ¸ ois Noireau b,c , Claudio R. Lazzari a,∗ a Institut de Recherche sur la Biologie de l’Insecte, UMR CNRS 6035 - Université Franc ¸ ois Rabelais, Tours, France b Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD), UR016, Montpellier, France c IIBISMED, Facultad de Medicina, Universidad Mayor de San Simon, Cochabamba, Bolivia article info Article history: Received 17 March 2010 Received in revised form 7 November 2010 Accepted 10 November 2010 Available online 27 November 2010 Keywords: Lure Trap Monitoring Haematophagous Triatominae Ticks abstract Artificial baits constitute important tools for the detection and sampling of blood-sucking arthropods, in particular those that are vectors of parasites affecting human health. At present, many different devices have been proposed to attract blood-sucking arthropods, mostly based on the attractiveness of particu- lar chemicals or blends. However, most of them revealed themselves as unpractical (e.g. they require an electrical supply), expensive (e.g. gas bottles) or not efficient enough. On the other hand, the use of living baits is as effective but it has practical constraints and/or raises ethical questions. We present here a mul- timodal lure to attract blood-sucking arthropods designed taking into account both practical constraints and costs. The main characteristics of our bait are: (1) artificiality (no living-host); (2) multimodality (it associates heat, carbon dioxide and chemical attractants); (3) independency from any energy source; (4) no need for gas bottles; (5) easy to prepare and use in the field; (6) low cost. We tested the ability of the bait to attract blood-sucking arthropods in the laboratory and in the field, using capture sticky-traps. Our bait evinced to be almost as efficient as live hosts (mice) for the capture of Chagas disease and Borrelia vectors in Bolivia. The multimodal lure here presented is a generalist bait, i.e. effective for attracting different haematophagous species. © 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction The detection and capture of disease vectors in both, domes- tic and wild habitats, constitute main strategies for the study and control of the diseases that they transmit. Different methods based on the exploitation of behavioural responses of blood-sucking insects are being used for a long time ago (Lumsden, 1958). Some of them are physical devices provid- ing refuge (e.g. Gomez-Nu ˜ nez, 1965; Wisnivesky-Colli et al., 1987; Vazquez-Prokopec et al., 2002), whereas others employ different types of lures, either living or artificial (e.g. Guerenstein et al., 1995; Lorenzo et al., 1998; Noireau et al., 1999; Lourenc ¸ o-de-Oliveira et al., 2008; Anderson et al., 2009). Refuge-like sensors reveal as very useful for long-term surveillance and do not need any kind of maintenance. Insects are not attracted, but when they encounter the device, they may use it as a refuge or leave traces of their pas- sage inside (e.g. excrements, exhuviae). Baited devices are more useful for rapid detection, due to their ability to attract insects by means of chemical or physical lures, or a combination of both. They are usually more complex than the first one; their source of attrac- ∗ Corresponding author at: Institut de Recherche sur la Biologie de l’Insecte, Fac- ulté des Sciences et Techniques, Avenue Monge, Parc Grandmont, 37200 Tours, France. E-mail address: claudio.lazzari@univ-tours.fr (C.R. Lazzari). tants remains active for relatively shorter periods and they need in some cases an energy source. Triatoma infestans and Rhodnius prolixus are the main vectors of Trypanosoma cruzi, the causative agent of Chagas disease, in Latin America. To capture them, different types of traps are used, in some cases including live hosts, e.g. mice, rats, rabbits, guinea pigs, chicks, hens and chickens, as bait (Rabinovich et al., 1976; Tonn et al., 1976; Carcavallo, 1985; Noireau et al., 1999). Numerous stud- ies showed that haematophagous arthropods, including triatomine bugs, find their hosts detecting the emission of heat, carbon dioxide and odours emitted by their bodies (see reviews by Guerenstein and Lazzari, 2009 and Lazzari, 2009). In the present work, we describe a multimodal bait, delivering different potentially attractive signals for haematophagous arthropods. In order to assess the effective- ness of this bait, we tested its ability to capture triatomine bugs, which are vectors of Chagas disease, in the laboratory and in wild natural environment. 2. Materials and methods 2.1. Lure description The lure consisted on a combination of sources of heat, carbon dioxide and volatiles. Heat production was obtained by means of iron oxidation (exothermic reaction) by mixing 5 g of iron powder, 0001-706X/$ – see front matter © 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.actatropica.2010.11.005