A Novel Approach in Creating a Bioinsecticidal Repellent Using \u3cem\u3eCymbopogon, Lavandula,\u3c/em\u3e and \u3cem\u3eRosmarinus officinalis \u3c/em\u3e Essential Oils (Eos) with an Attractive Sugar Bait

With the emerging of insecticide resistance among mosquitoes, diseases such as malaria, West Nile virus, Dengue fever, and chikungunya have remained a prevalent issue globally. The purpose of this research project was to identify whether or not an essential oil (EO) enhanced the toxicity of the oil towards Culex quinquefasciatus. It was hypothesized that citronella would repel the most amount of Culex quinquefasciatus. There were 90 mosquitoes in four groups: control, citronella (Cymbopogon) experimental, lavender (Lavandula) experimental, and rosemary (Rosmarinus officinalis) experimental. Once the mosquitoes emerged from their pupae stage, two cotton pads (one with a sugar bait and one with the EO drops and bait) were placed on opposite sides of the cage. A concentration of the essential oil and the bait was created using 10, 20, and 30 EO drops and applied on a cotton pad with a 10% sucrose solution. Results were measured by observing how many were attracted to the EO bait in comparison to the sugar bait alone. A one-way ANOVA between the three essential oils and the numbers of drops applied on the sugar bait was tested, showing that all citronella, lavender, and rosemary EOs were significantly different from one another based on all the number of drops applied to the sugar baits. To compare the EOs to each other, a Tukey post-hoc took place. The hypothesis was not supported because rosemary showed a significant difference between the other two EOs, meaning that the rosemary EO was able to repel the most mosquitoes