Utization of spatial repellents for population management of biting flies

The term spatial repellent was defined by the Gouck et al. (1967) as a compound or agent that could produce repellency at a distance.  Nolen et al. (2002) later defined spatial repellents as volatile chemical compounds that possess the ability to inhibit the host-seeking behavior of insects in an environmentally defined three dimensional space.  Recently, we at the USDA (Bernier et al., 2007) have shifted away from use of the term spatial repellent for human-produced masking chemicals in favor of the term “attraction-inhibitors.”  We believe this term to be a logical choice to describe the observed behavioral effect (inhibition) observed in bioassays. Some researchers have used the term (Grieco et al., 2007; Achee et al. 2007) “non-contact irritancy” to describe the behavior of mosquitoes moving away from aerially dispersed insecticide. Development of spatial repellents has been a consistent goal of our research program during the past decade. An advantage of spatial or area repellents over topical repellents is that they create a three-dimensional zone from which biting arthropods are repelled or within which they fail to bite. This potential advantage includes protection of a number of people with a single product, ease of use without the need to make applications to the skin, and a continuous level of protection. This presentation presents an overview of the various systems for dispersing chemical spatial repellents that we have evaluated during the past ten years. Physical systems can be as simple as fans or screened enclosures, or as complicated as radio frequency generators, but these will not be discussed.