Asian tiger mosquito , Aedes albopictus , are vectors for yellow fever , dengue , chikungunya , and other infectious diseases , and they ’ve been attain their way through front lawns and backyards across the U.S. allot to a newJournal of Medical Entomologystudy , they prefer to lie their eggs in water near flower works . The findings could help us intimately assure these nettlesome bloodsuckers .
Mosquitoes are known to utilize flowering works for the sugar , but little is have a go at it about how this might influence their choice of site for oviposition ( or testicle - laying ) . Residential arena landscape with pile of different flowering industrial plant provide plenty of potential larval developmental sites for container - breed mosquito likeAedes albopictus . The female typically develop and transmit the disease - causing microbes while take bloodmeals .
To better understand their bollock - position preference , University of Florida ’s Timothy Davis and colleague study gravid ( or pregnant ) femaleAedes albopictusin a closed nursery , then in three large outdoor enclosures with screens , and finally in four suburban backyard in and around Gainesville , Florida .
The mosquitoes had access to flowering butterfly bush ( Buddleja davidii ) plants and containers of up to three sizing ( 473 , 946 , and 1,892 milliliter ) meet with an oak tree foliage infusion . In the large enclosures , the container were sometimes next to a bush with its flowers removed ; in the enclosures and the backyard , other mintage of anthesis plant were also present . ejaculate germination newspaper was used to line the container , and the testicle were counted 48 hours after the mosquito were released .
The squad found significantly more egg in the largest containers with higher volumes of water and importantly more egg in container next to flowering bushes ( compare to container without flower ) . Flowering butterfly George Bush seem to exert a greater influence over oviposition decisions than container size of it : In the big enclosure study , 69.28 per centum ofAedes albopictuseggs were deposit in containers near the flowers .
Nectar is an authoritative vim source , and gravid females are pull in to flower works to not only fertilise themselves but believably also to proviso for their offspring . " Exploiting the attraction of flowering butterfly bushes in formulate ascendency techniques could assist in block up pathogen transmission , " Davis said in astatement . If researcher can isolate and copy whatever ’s draw the mosquito , they might be able to tempt egg - laying females into traps .
