Testing the Efficacy of Different Fruit Juices as Attractants for Anopheles pulcherrimus

Attractive sugar baits (ASBs) represent a promising tool in integrated vector management, particularly for controlling Anopheles pulcherrimus, a malaria vector. This study aimed to pre-screen various fruit juices for their attractiveness to An. pulcherrimus under controlled laboratory conditions using cone and cage bioassays. In the initial cone bioassay, guava juice elicited the highest mosquito attraction, peaking at 18 individuals at 60 min, followed by orange, banana, and muskmelon juices. In contrast, sweet lemon and the control (distilled water) consistently attracted the fewest mosquitoes. The cage bioassays further confirmed these findings. In Cage 1, muskmelon showed the strongest and most consistent attraction (up to 17 mosquitoes), followed by banana and watermelon. Cage 2 revealed loquat juice as the most effective attractant (15.3 mosquitoes), outperforming orange and strawberry. In Cage 3, guava juice again proved most attractive (up to 18 mosquitoes), followed by apple and sweet lemon. Cage 4 supported the superior performance of guava, with consistent attraction values across all time intervals, followed by muskmelon and loquat. Comparative evaluations across multiple time points (1-24 h) showed that guava juice consistently outperformed all other baits, followed by apple, orange, and muskmelon, while the control remained least attractive throughout. Statistical analyses confirmed significant differences among treatments, with guava exhibiting the highest attraction across replicates and time points. The findings highlight guava juice as the most promising candidate for use in ASB-based mosquito control strategies. Its consistent performance warrants further investigation into its chemical constituents for potential use in field-deployable attract-and-kill formulations.