The potential of human skin and plant-based odours combination to attract malaria mosquito, Anopheles gambiae s.s. in Laboratory and Semi field settings.

Background Knowledge on mosquito attraction to various host-mimicking odors provides a potential opportunity for designing effective tools for surveillance and control of potential disease vectors. This study was carried out to explore the potential of combining plant and human mimicking odours to attract Anopheles gambiae s. s . in the laboratory and semi field settings in Tanzania. Methodology Blood fed and unfed female Anopheles gambiae s.s. mosquitoes were offered choices between human skin, plant-based odours or combination thereof in laboratory and semi-field setting. The captured mosquitoes from each source were scored for comparison. Results In laboratory and semi-field trials, the tested attractants combination of plant and human-mimicking odours found to be slightly attractive (approximately 10% higher) than either individual attractant to blood fed female mosquitoes under lab and semi-field settings. The unfed female mosquitoes were more attracted to Vectrax (plant-based materials) by more than 10% in comparison to human skin-based attractant both in lab and semi-field settings. In semi-field settings particularly, more unfed female mosquitoes were attracted to Vectrax than to the combination (p < 0.01). Conclusions The findings that the combination blend (human host and plant based) semiochemical increases mosquito attraction hold the potential to increase efficiency of mosquitoes trapping devices in both indoor and outdoor settings. This may provide valuable tools for mosquito vector management programs. Moreover, these results also suggest the potential of the combination odours to be used in the attract and kill strategies.