Laboratory evaluation of insecticide-treated sugar baits for control of phlebotomine sand flies (Diptera: Psychodidae)

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the use of boric acid, imidacloprid, ivermectin, or abamectin incorporated into sugar baits as oral toxicants for adult phlebotomine sand flies. Variable toxicity of insecticide-sugar bait solutions to adult male and female sand flies was demonstrated, based on male female median lethal concentration values of 0.10-0.08, 6.13-9.53, and 9.03-18.11 mg/liter of imidacloprid, ivermectin, and abamectin, respectively. Complete control of sand flies could not be achieved with as high as 40 g/liter of boric acid in sugar bait solution; concentrations >40 g/liter were found repellent to the sand flies. Uranine O (a fluorescent tracer dye that can be used to measure the ingestion of sugar baits by sand flies) did not interact negatively with imidacloprid, ivermectin, or abamectin when it was combined with the insecticides in a sugar bait. Also, incorporation of imidacloprid, ivermectin, or abamectin into sugar baits did not reduce the effect whether adult male and female sand flies fed on these sugar baits. We propose that imidacloprid, ivermectin, or abamectin could be used to control adult sand fly populations with targeted use of insecticide-treated sugar baits.