Last Updated: 26/07/2016
Completing the integrated innovation of the Lehmann Trap to reduce malaria
Objectives
The overall goal of this project is to develop a prototype device to screen and trap mosquitoes indoors, with a trap that does not require an insecticide or an attractant, but effectively collects mosquitoes and kills them.
This device could complement outdoor traps in order to increase the scope of mosquitoes targeted.
Implemented in Burkina Faso, the project team developed a prototype device to screen and trap mosquitoes indoors, the Lehman trap, which does not require an insecticide or an attractant, but effectively collects mosquitoes and kills them.
A funnel, made of a metal frame, is inserted at the top of the trap in a way that mosquitoes approaching the window in a house go first through the big opening of the funnel and enter the trap passing through the small opening. The way the funnel is inserted in the cage allows mosquitoes to enter easily but prevents them from escaping.
The project team worked with a local window manufacturer to improve the design of existing traps to fit into local houses, developed six prototypes and tested four of them in two ecological settings (high- versus low-vector density). The most promising prototype was selected and then deployed in a case-control study in two villages (one village was an intervention village and the other was a control). A total of eight houses in the control village were selected to install the traps at windows and to assess their performances against that of the intervention village. Mosquito density was followed up monthly for four months.
Outcome: At individual houses, the Lehmann’s trap performed very well in both the intervention and control village, as mosquito density in individually equipped houses with traps was reduced by 78%–96% throughout the four-month study period. Assessment of the impact of the trap on vector density at the community level showed a 68% reduction in August and 55.5% in October, but there was no reduction in September.
Next steps for the project team will be to promote the trap, build a business plan around it and get local entrepreneurs to invest in it.
Completing the integrated innovation of the Lehmann Trap to reduce malaria
May 2014 — Nov 2015
$91,258
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