A sterile insect technique pilot trial on Captiva Island: defining mosquito population parameters for sterile male releases using mark–release–recapture

A sterile insect technique pilot trial on Captiva Island: defining mosquito population parameters for sterile male releases using mark–release–recapture

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D. O. Carvalho, R. Morreale, S. Stenhouse, D. A. Hahn, M. Gomez, A. Lloyd and D. Hoel,  Parasites and Vectors,  15:405. 2022.

The sterile insect technique (SIT), which involves area-wide inundative releases of sterile insects to suppress the reproduction of a target species, has proven to be an effective pest control method. The technique demands the continuous release of sterilized insects in quantities that ensure a high sterile male:wild male ratio for the suppression of the wild population over succeeding generations. Over the course of seven mark-release-recapture studies using single- and multiple-point releases, 190,504 sterile marked males were released, for which the recapture rate was 1.5% over a mean period of 12 days. The mean distance traveled by sterile males of the local strain of Ae. aegypti that has colonized Captiva Island was 201.7 m from the release point, with an observed maximum traveled distance of 404.5 m. The released sterile mosquitoes had a probability of daily survival of 0.67 and an average life expectancy of ~ 2.46 days.s These data together with the population size estimate and sterile:wild ratio provide a solid basis for planning the SIT operational phase which is aimed at mosquito population suppression.