Study on the repellent effects of ultrasound on Armigeres subalbatus

YUE Manni; DING Shuo; CHEN Liqian; YANG Zengtao

doi:10.19821/j.1671-2781.2025.06.002

Abstract：Objective To investigate whether ultrasound can effectively repel mosquitoes and to examine the effects of different ultrasound frequencies and power levels on mosquitoes behavioral patterns.Methods Airborne ultrasound at different frequencies(24.5,33,40 kHz)and power levels(5,10,15,20 W)were applied to Armigeres subalbatus within a test chamber.The avoidance rate,leg movement trajectory length,mortality rate,and blood-feeding rate were measured and compared between an ultrasound-treated group and a control group.One-way ANOVA was used to analyze the differences in mosquito behavior affected by ultrasound.Results The results regarding the repellent rate of A.subalbatus showed no significant difference between the ultrasound-treated group and the control group(P＞0.05),indicating that ultrasound did not repel the mosquitoes.However,the experiment on leg movement trajectory length revealed that ultrasound significantly affected this parameter in A.subalbatus,with the trajectory length increasing as both frequency and power increased(P＜0.05).The mortality rate experiment showed that ultrasound could not kill A.subalbatus,with no significant difference in mortality rates observed between the ultrasound-treated and control groups(P＞0.05).Furthermore,the blood-feeding rate experiment demonstrated that ultrasound also failed to reduce the blood-feeding rate of A.subalbatus,with no statistically significant difference between the groups(P＞0.05).Conclusion Commonly used low-frequency airborne ultrasound below 50 kHz does not repel A.subalbatus.Mosquitoes can perceive ultrasound,and their leg vibration amplitude significantly increases with higher frequency and power.However,such ultrasound has no measurable effect on the repellent rate,mortality rate,or blood-feeding rate of A.subalbatus.