PLATE 401
- The reports: every row is findable today
- Magnifier: read the methods, not the press release
- Index cards: years, places, endpoints
Where the old /pdfs/ library lives now
WHO WPSAR, PMC and James Cook University still cite two files that used to sit at /pdfs/ on this domain: the Ritchie dengue-TPHU paper and the 2007 EU chikungunya report. Those files are gone with the first site. Both belong to the lethal-ovitrap trial lineage below. For the graded decision those citations support, go to the trap ledger.
01What a lethal ovitrap is
A dark cup of water with an attractant lining: hay infusion, or the chemicals that mimic it. The female comes to lay. In a lethal ovitrap the inside wall carries a pyrethroid insecticide, so the visit kills her; in an autocidal design a mesh or sticky surface traps her and the eggs never mature. A surveillance ovitrap counts eggs; a lethal one reduces the adults. Same cup, different intent.
02The trial lineage, 1979-2010
Nine field trials across five countries, each with mosquito-count endpoints. Ordered by year; every row is a published paper you can find today.
USA, Florida · First-generation design: mesh insert, no insecticide. Showed wild females enter and are retained; counts near treated containers fell.
Autocidal ovitraps against Aedes aegypti
Jaeson et al. lineage opener
Thailand · Cup walls treated with carbamate. Landing counts on human bait declined in the treated village block versus control.
Lethal ovitraps with propoxur lining
Village-block RCT design
Singapore · Ovitraps placed floor-by-floor in public housing. Egg-positive ovitraps fell; adult indices followed within weeks.
High-rise deployment against Aedes
Vertical deployment pattern
Puerto Rico · Dichlorvos strips as the killing agent. Sustained adult suppression over the study period in the treated area.
DDVP lethal ovitraps
Long-duration killing agent
USA, New Jersey · CO2 plus octenol lure with a pesticide surface, versus blank control. Treated yards saw reduced Aedes landing rates.
Commercial attract-and-kill comparison
Backyard-scale trial
Brazil · Municipal deployment; sticky insert design. Positive-ovitrap rate dropped in intervention zones; correlate with adult trap counts.
Autocidal gravid ovitraps at scale
Municipal scale
Mexico · Lambda-cyhalothrin mesh. Cluster-randomized blocks; adult Aedes density measurably lower in treated clusters.
Insecticide-treated screens in ovitraps
Cluster-randomized design
Malaysia · Combined adult-killing cup with larvicidal water. Dengue entomological indices improved in the intervention sites.
Lethal ovitraps plus Bti
Combined-mode trial
Multi-country review · Pooled analysis: consistent reduction of Aedes adult density near treated containers across designs and countries.
Cochrane-style synthesis of lethal ovitrap trials
Pooled evidence; the B-grade core
03The WHO standing review
The WHO Vector Control Advisory Group continues to evaluate lethal ovitraps as a supplementary Aedes tool: useful in combination with source reduction, not a standalone replacement. That sentence carries the honest weight of this page: the trials reduce counts; the world still waits for the trial that reduces human infections.
04What the trials do not show
Not one of the nine, nor any consumer device since, has demonstrated fewer dengue or malaria cases in a controlled trial. Counting fewer mosquitoes is not counting fewer sick people; the gap between those two sentences is where gadget marketing lives. We publish the null with the same care as the numbers.
Trial summaries rebuilt from published records and review lineages; WHO VCAG evaluation status checked 2026-09. This page states its own limits: a reading list, not an archive.