A Structural and Operational Analysis of Diurnal Resting Shelters for Mosquitoes (Diptera: Culicidae)

Studies on mosquito shelter size showed that a shelter 30 cm high, 40 cm wide and 20 cm deep was comparable to the 30-cm cube commonly used and that the use of smaller shelters would reduce the numbers of Culiseta melanura, Cs. morsitans, Anopheles punctipennis, An. quadrimaculatus and Culex territans. A 30 × 30 × 20-cm shelter served as well as either larger shelter for simply detecting the presence or absence of these 5 species. Mosquito numbers varied in proportion to the size of the opening of a 30 × 40 × 20-cm shelter. Surface texture and the presence of vertical or horizontal half-partitions did not influence size of catch. No differences were found among shelters with either a black, blue, brown, green or red interior, but shelters with a white, grey or ½ white-½ black interior or a white exterior attracted significantly fewer mosquitoes. Shelters opening toward the swamp attracted more mosquitoes than those facing away when the shelters were adjacent to the swamp. West-facing shelters consistently had more mosquitoes than east-facing shelters when inspections were made in the morning, while there were no significant differences among shelters when inspections were made in the evening. The west- and north-facing shelters had significantly fewer specimens in the evening than they did in the morning, while there were no significant differences between morning and evening collections in the east- and south-facing shelters. Recommendations for the construction, placement and inspection of shelters are given.