Marco Neira1/+, Renaud Lacroix1, Lorenzo Cáceres2, Paul E Kaiser1, Josue Young2, Lleysa Pineda2, Isaac Black1, Nestor Sosa2, Derric Nimmo1, Luke Alphey1, Andrew McKemey1
1Oxitec Ltd, Oxford, UK 2Gorgas Memorial Institute for Health Studies, Panama City, Panama.
Traditional mosquito control strategies rely heavily on the use of chemical insecticides. However, concerns about the efficiency of traditional control methods, environmental impact and emerging pesticide resistance have highlighted the necessity for developing innovative tools for mosquito control. Some novel strategies, including release of insects carrying a dominant lethal gene (RIDL®), rely on the sustained release of modified male mosquitoes and therefore benefit from a thorough understanding of the biology of the male of the species. In this report we present the results of a mark-release-recapture study aimed at: (i) establishing the survival in the field of laboratory-reared, wild-type male Aedes aegypti and (b) estimating the size of the local adult Ae. aegypti population.