Ary Faraji

• PhD
• Executive Director / Entomologist at Salt Lake City Mosquito Abatement District

Mosquitoes, like many other insects, are dependent on plant-derived nutrients as adults. Arid lands in particular create a challenge for mosquitoes to find resources consistently. In the United States, the arid, high elevation floodplains around the Great Salt Lake present a rich environment where salt desert shrublands meet alkaline freshwater wet...

Larval application of insecticides (larviciding) is primarily conducted using a variety of biorational compounds as an essential function within integrated mosquito management. Larvicide-treated water has been sporadically investigated for deterring oviposition, but prior efforts have been primarily focused on Aedes aegypti (L.) with limited repres...

Surveillance is integral for the targeted and effective function of integrated vector management. However, the scale of surveillance efforts can be prohibitive on manpower, given the large number of traps set, collected, processed, and enumerated. For many public health agencies, the sheer effort of weekly trapping, combined with the processing of...

Mosquito control operations have limited options available for adult mosquito reduction. Untapped alternatives exist in adjacent pest-management industries, but translation and validation for various technologies is still ongoing. The attractive targeted sugar bait (ATSB) strategy is a formulation platform that is amenable to toxicants not otherwis...

Understanding how life is adapting to urban environments represents an important challenge in evolutionary biology. Here we investigate a widely cited example of urban adaptation, Culex pipiens form molestus, also known as the London Underground Mosquito. Population genomic analysis of ~350 contemporary and historical samples counter the popular hy...

Background Mosquitoes (Diptera: Culicidae) are important arthropod vectors that are responsible for transmitting numerous pathogens of major diseases. Adult mosquito traps help in effective surveillance. In this study, we compared the efficacy of the Biogents® Sentinel (BGS) traps and CO 2 -baited CDC traps for adult mosquito collection within four...

Propylene glycol (PG) demonstrates greater efficacy than other sugar polyols. However, the attributes it confers for toxicity and possible co-formulation with other ingredients are unknown. To evaluate this, α-glucosidase and glucose oxidase reactions were performed in Aedes aegypti (L.) (Diptera: Culicidae) to categorize if PG behaves similarly to...

Climate, land use and land cover change influence infectious disease dynamics, particularly vector-borne diseases. Knowledge about mosquito ecology in southern Indiana is limited. Here, we present results from a season long study where we sampled mosquitoes at the Hickory Ridge Fire Tower in Hoosier National Forest, Monroe County, Indiana, USA. Usi...

The Salt Lake City Mosquito Abatement District (SLCMAD) detected a 20,000-fold resistance to Lysinibacillus sphaericus (Lsph) in Culex pipiens occurring in catch basins of Salt Lake City during 2016. In response, SLCMAD suspended use of Lsph and rotated use of spinosyn and s-methoprene products for the next three years. At the end of the third year...

The New Jersey Light Trap has been among the earliest trap models used for mosquito surveillance in the United States. This trap was modernized in the 1950s to the miniature CDC light trap, with the addition of CO2 following soon after. The incandescent light has the tendency to attract nontarget insects, as well as losing a substantial portion of...

Background Sugar alcohols, such as erythritol, are low-impact candidates for attractive toxic sugar baits (ATSB) to kill mosquitoes. To determine whether erythritol has a viable future in ATSB formulations, a suite of assays was conducted to diagnose toxicity mechanisms and starvation effects on mortality in Aedes aegypti (L.) as a model system. M...

The central component of mosquito and vector surveillance programs globally is the adult mosquito trap, which is intended to collect host-seeking mosquitoes. The miniature CDC trap is a widely distributed trap style in part due to its relative affordability and compact nature. Despite already being a simple trap, in-house production methods, such a...

The western tree hole mosquito, Aedes sierrensis (Ludlow) (Diptera: Clucidae), is a pestiferous mosquito with a range extending over the entire pacific seaboard and into portions of the intermountain west. As a peridomestic heartworm vector, it demands at least some level of surveillance to understand its abundance. However, the species is refracto...

Gravid traps have become a common and frequently essential surveillance tool for parous Culex spp. vectors of West Nile virus and other encephalitis-causing pathogens. The recent closing of BioQuip Products Inc., an entomological supply company, has jeopardized the commercial availability of gravid traps. The Salt Lake City Mosquito Abatement Distr...

We performed a thorough systematic review of published literature to determine potential links between human health impacts and naled, a registered adult mosquito control product (adulticide), and its major degradate, dichlorvos (DDVP). A search query was performed on 8 September 2023, capturing all articles published up to that date on the Scopus...

The Salt Lake City Mosquito Abatement District (SLCMAD) has been conducting aerial applications using an organophosphate insecticide against adult mosquitoes for several decades. In order to evaluate a potential rotation product, aerial applications of Duet HD™, a pyrethroid, were conducted under operational conditions against wild populations of A...

Tools for rearing hematophagous insects, such as mosquitoes (Diptera: Culicidae), in an insectary are essential for research and operational evaluations in vector biology and control. There is an abundance of low-cost options for practitioners without conventional infrastructure. However, few midrange options exist that provide a balance of efficie...

Attractive toxic sugar baits (ATSBs) are an underexploited method for mosquito control. For ATSBs to be more widely accepted, demonstrably effective ingredients need to be verified. We investigated erythritol as a toxic additive in sugar meals against Aedes aegypti (L.) for potential future use in ATSBs. Erythritol is a sugar alcohol that is common...

Identifying the mosquitoes responsible for transmitting human disease-causing pathogens is of critical importance for effective control of mosquito-borne outbreaks. West Nile virus is often transferred by adult female mosquitoes in the genus Culex, which deposit eggs in a variety of aquatic habitats throughout the world. Herein we describe several...

Insecticide application for vector control is the most controversial component of a public health program due to concerns about environmental and human health safety. One approach to overcome this challenge is the use of environmentally benign active ingredients. Among the most promising emerging strategies are attractive toxic sugar baits. Sugar a...

Aedes aegypti (L.), the yellow fever mosquito, is also an important vector of dengue and Zika viruses, and an invasive species in North America. Aedes aegypti inhabits tropical and sub-tropical areas of the world and in North America, is primarily distributed throughout the southern US states and Mexico. The northern range of Ae. aegypti is limited...

Diseases transmitted by mosquitoes are emerging across the globe in a broad range of urbanized, rural, and natural environments inhabited by their vector species. Because applications of insecticides remain the most effective, and often the only available tool to prevent or control mosquito-borne disease outbreaks , their use and scope continue to...

Background Aedes (Stegomyia) albopictus (Skuse) impacts human outdoor activity because of its aggressive biting behavior, and as a major vector of mosquito-borne diseases, it is also of public health importance. Although most mosquito species exhibit crepuscular activity by primarily host seeking at dawn and dusk, Ae. albopictus has been traditiona...

Conventional larvicide delivery strategies originally developed for permanent and floodwater mosquitoes have proved suboptimal in the small, scattered, and cryptic larval habitats preferred by container-inhabiting Aedes mosquitoes. New methods such as autodissemination, wherein adult mosquitoes spread insecticides to their own larval habitats, have...

Organized mosquito control programs (MCP) in the United States have been protecting public health since the early 1900’s. These programs utilize integrated mosquito management for surveillance and control measures to enhance quality of life and protect the public from mosquito-borne diseases. Because much of the equipment and insecticides are devel...

Aedes ( Stegomyia ) albopictus (Skuse) impacts human outdoor activity because of its aggressive biting behavior, and as a major vector of mosquito-borne diseases, it is also of public health importance. Although most mosquito species exhibit crepuscular activity by primarily host seeking at dawn and dusk, Ae. albopictus has been traditionally chara...

Various products and insecticides are available that purport to reduce wild populations of adult mosquitoes. Recently, several manufacturers and general public comments on the internet have promoted devices that claim that ingestion of salt will significantly reduce populations of wild mosquitoes to near zero; there are no known scientific efficacy...

The western tree hole mosquito, Aedes sierrensis (Ludlow), is a common nuisance mosquito and vector of Dirofilaria immitis (Leidy), the etiologic agent of dog heartworm, in western North America. Here, we compare weekly mosquito collections made with Mosquito Magnet (MM) traps, Biogents Sentinel (BGS) traps, and Biogents Bowl (BGS Bowl) traps set i...

In North America, the geographic distribution, ecology, and vectorial capacity of a diverse assemblage of mosquito species belonging to the genus Culex determine patterns of West Nile virus transmission and disease risk. East of the Mississippi River, mostly ornithophagic Culex pipiens L. complex mosquitoes drive intense enzootic transmission with...

BACKGROUND Given the lack of vaccines for most vector‐borne diseases, vector control is often the primary option for disease control. Aedes albopictus are difficult to control because the immatures primarily develop in containers ubiquitous in residential properties. Conventional adulticide campaigns often result in brief, rebounding population dec...

Arboviruses diseases, especially dengue, chikungunya and Zika are responsible for millions of human sickness and a significant number of deaths worldwide. There is no effective treatment and cure available for these arboviral diseases. These diseases are transmitted mainly by Aedes mosquitoes such as Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus. They are hig...

Biorational mosquito larvicides based on microbial organisms and insect growth regulators (IGRs) have played a vital role in integrated mosquito control, particularly since the invasion of West Nile virus to the United States in 1999. Products that are formulated with technical powder of the bacterium, Bacillus sphaericus Neide (recently Lysinibaci...

The historically southeastern mosquito species Culex erraticus has over the last 30 years undergone a marked expansion north. We evaluated this species’ potential to participate in local disease cycles in the northeastern USA by identifying the vertebrate sources of blood in Cx. erraticus specimens from New Jersey. We found that the majority of blo...

In response to an outbreak of Zika virus that started in February 2016 on Kosrae Island, Kosrae State, Federated States of Micronesia, we conducted entomological investigations, including a survey to characterize the mosquito fauna on Kosrae, from November 29 to December 8, 2016. Mosquitoes were collected using several surveillance methods in order...

Historical specimens, when available, can provide new insight into the distribution and evolution of pathogens that may not be discernible from more recent samples. We used ticks collected from hunter-killed white-tailed deer in New Jersey in 2002 to examine the prevalence and distribution of four pathogens transmitted by Ixodes scapularis, the bla...

Background: The control of the container-inhabiting mosquito, Aedes albopictus, is difficult with conventional methods due to its selection of cryptic peridomestic habitats. We evaluated whether autodissemination stations are able to deliver sufficient pyriproxyfen to sentinel containers to produce significant pupal mortality in different habitats...

In 2016, Zika virus disease developed in a man (patient A) who had no known risk factors beyond caring for a relative who died of this disease (index patient). We investigated the source of infection for patient A by surveying other family contacts, healthcare personnel, and community members, and testing samples for Zika virus. We identified 19 fa...

Aedes albopictus is a major nuisance pest and also a public health concern because of the role it plays in the transmission of arboviruses. There is a continuing demand for effective surveillance tools for this species. The first generation of Biogents Sentinel (BGS1) traps have proven to be an effective tool for surveillance of Ae. albopictus thro...

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Background Aedes albopictus, the Asian tiger mosquito, is an aggressive, highly anthropophilic, day-biting mosquito with an expanding geographic range. Suppression of Ae. albopictus is difficult because of the abundance and prevalence of larval habitats within peridomestic environments, particularly cryptic habitats such as corrugated extension spo...

The concept of integrated mosquito management (IMM) is central to the goal of mosquito prevention and control. The term is derived from integrated pest management, which has been defined as a synergistic, ecosystem-based strategy that focuses on long-term suppression of pests or their damage through a combination of techniques, including biologic c...

The recent emergence and spread of vector-borne viruses including Zika, chikungunya and dengue has raised concerns that climate change may cause mosquito vectors of these diseases to expand into more temperate regions. However, the long-term impact of other anthropogenic factors on mosquito abundance and distributions is less studied. Here, we show...

We report on the use of the Gravid Aedes Trap (GAT) as a surveillance device for Aedes albopictus (Skuse) relative to the BG-Sentinel (BGS) trap in field studies conducted in Trenton, NJ, and on Hammond Island, Queensland, Australia. A parallel study conducted in Nha Trang, Vietnam, assessed the use of the GAT as an indoor surveillance device as we...

On July 12, 2016, the Utah Department of Health (UDOH) was notified by a clinician caring for an adult (patient A) who was evaluated for fever, rash, and conjunctivitis that began on July 1. Patient A had not traveled to an area with ongoing Zika virus transmission; had not had sexual contact with a person who recently traveled; and had not receive...

The Asian tiger mosquito, Aedes albopictus (Skuse), is a highly invasive container-inhabiting species with a global distribution. This mosquito, similar to other Stegomyia species such as Aedes aegypti (L.), is highly adapted to urban and suburban areas, and commonly oviposits in artificial containers, which are ubiquitous in these peridomestic env...

Aedes albopictus (Skuse) and other container-inhabiting species have become important public health concerns due to the transmission of dengue, chikungunya, and Zika viruses. Effective surveillance is dependent on the ability to collect a sufficient number of mosquitoes for population monitoring and pathogen isolation. The Biogents Sentinel (BGS) t...

Adult control of Aedes albopictus via ultra-low volume is difficult because this species occurs primarily in peridomestic habitats where obstacles such as buildings and vegetation can disrupt spray plumes and droplet dispersion. We determined droplet penetration and characterization of a pyrethroid adulticide applied from the ground at mid (46.77 m...

Urban mid label Hock application. Droplet characteristics of a mid label ULV adulticide application within individual stations and parcels in urban Mercer as sampled by Hock type impactors. (TIF)

Urban mid label FLB application. Droplet characteristics of a mid label ULV adulticide application within individual stations and parcels in urban Mercer as sampled by FLB type impactors. (TIF)

Suburban max label Hock application. Droplet characteristics of a maximum label ULV adulticide application within individual stations and parcels in suburban Monmouth, as sampled by Hock type impactors. (TIF)

Urban max label FLB applications. Droplet characteristics of a maximum label ULV adulticide application within individual stations and parcels in urban Mercer as sampled by FLB type impactors. (TIF)

Urban max label Hock application. Droplet characteristics of a maximum label ULV adulticide application within individual stations and parcels in urban Mercer as sampled by Hock type impactors. (TIF)

Suburban max label FLB application. Droplet characteristics of a maximum label ULV adulticide application within individual stations and parcels in suburban Monmouth, as sampled by FLB type impactors. (TIF)

Urban alcove stations. Three representative sheltered alcove stations between two adjoining parcels (homes) in urban habitats of sampling sites. (TIF)

Marker dyes are often mixed with liquid insecticide formulations prior to field applications to accurately determine the characteristics and penetration of droplets into targeted habitats. We have been using FD&C Red 40 Granular DM food dye at the rate of 20 g/liter in liquid solutions of Bacillus thuringiensis israelensis (Bti) for area-wide larvi...

Background: Recent changes in climate and human behavior have led to dramatic increases in the abundance and geographic expansion of invasive mosquito vectors such as Aedes albopictus. Although source reduction has been shown to be effective in reducing mosquito populations, thousands of back yards need to be inspected during door-to-door campaign...

Background: Culex pipiens pipiens plays an important role in the transmission of several vector-borne pathogens such as West Nile virus (WNV) in North America. Laboratory and field studies suggest that this species is ornithophilic but because of genetic hybridization with sibling species during the active mosquito season, it may occasionally feed...

The increasing range of Aedes albopictus, the Asian tiger mosquito, in the USA and the threat of chikungunya and dengue outbreaks vectored by this species have necessitated novel approaches to control this peridomestic mosquito. Conventional methods such as adulticiding provide temporary relief, but fail to manage this pest on a sustained basis. We...

Aedes albopictus is the most invasive mosquito in the world, an important disease vector, and a biting nuisance that limits outdoor activities. Area-wide integrated pest management (AW-IPM) is the recommended control strategy. We conducted an economic evaluation of the AW-IPM project in Mercer and Monmouth Counties, New Jersey with a controlled des...

Mosquito species that utilize peridomestic containers for immature development are commonly aggressive human biters, and because they often reach high abundance, create significant nuisance. One of these species, the Asian tiger mosquito Aedes albopictus, is an important vector of emerging infectious diseases, such as dengue, chikungunya, and Zika...

Background: The primary sources of Aedes albopictus (Skuse) in its exotic range in North America are artificial containers in backyards, which vary widely in accessibility. In this study we examined their prevalence in two container types that are difficult to inspect: catch basins and corrugated extension spouts (CES), the latter used to divert r...

As a hyperaggressive mosquito that is also a public health threat, Aedes albopictus (Skuse), the Asian tiger mosquito, is a major priority for control efforts. We examine one aspect of Ae. albopictus biology: oviposition height. Field-based research in an urban habitat was conducted to determine if a height preference exists for this species. Larva...

Background: Aedes albopictus is an invasive species which continues expanding its geographic range and involvement in mosquito-borne diseases such as chikungunya and dengue. Host selection patterns by invasive mosquitoes are critically important because they increase endemic disease transmission and drive outbreaks of exotic pathogens. Traditional...

Aedes albopictus (Skuse) is an invasive mosquito that has become an important vector of chikungunya and dengue viruses. Immature Ae. albopictus thrive in backyard household containers that require treatment with larvicides and when adult populations reach pest levels or disease transmission is ongoing, adulticiding is often required. To assess the...

Chemical insecticides are the primary means to control mosquitoes, and mosquito control programs must regularly monitor for resistance of mosquito vectors to commonly used insecticides to ensure the efficacy and sustainability of active ingredients. We performed insecticide resistance bioassays to test the susceptibility of field-collected mosquito...

We evaluated 2 strategies to manage Aedes albopictus: 1) motorized backpack applications and 2) source reduction (coupled with hand-applied applications of larvicide). Backpack applications used a water-dispersible granular formulation (VectoBac WDG) of Bacillus thuringiensis var. israelensis (Bti), whereas source reduction used granular formulatio...

The Biogents Sentinel (BGS) trap is a very effective tool to monitor adult populations of Aedes albopictus. We utilized BGS traps during an intensive 5-year surveillance as part of an "Area-wide Management Program for the Asian Tiger Mosquito." During this period, >52,000 mosquitoes were collected, comprising a total of 24 species. The most abundan...

Abstract Arboviral activity tracks vector availability, which in temperate regions means that transmission ceases during the winter and must be restarted each spring. In the northeastern United States, Culex restuans Theobald resumes its activity earlier than Culex pipiens L. and is thought to be important in restarting West Nile virus (WNV) transm...

Autodissemination of insecticides is a novel strategy for mosquito management. We tested if contaminated Aedes albopictus (Skuse) mosquitoes from a small area treated with commercial formulations (79 gm a.i. pyriproxyfen/ha) using conventional techniques, would disseminate pyriproxyfen over a wider area. Pyriproxyfen showed LC50=0.012 ppb for Ae. a...

The recent expansion of Aedes albopictus, a day-biting mosquito, to densely inhabited areas in the northeastern Atlantic states of the USA has dramatically increased the problem that mosquitoes create for urban and suburban residents. We quantified the impact of mosquitoes on residents' quality of life within the context of a comprehensive area-wid...

Background Aedes (Stegomyia) albopictus (Skuse) is an important disease vector and biting nuisance. During the 2009 active season, six approximate to 1000-parcel sites were studied, three in urban and three in suburban areas of New Jersey, United States, to examine the efficacy of standard integrated urban mosquito control strategies applied area w...

The bacterial agent Bacillus thuringiensis israelensis (Bti) is a highly effective larvicide against various medically important mosquito and black fly vector species. Recent formulations of this powerful larvicidal tool have been evaluated for their field efficacy in integrated mosquito management programs. Laboratory and controlled-condition tria...

The Asian tiger mosquito, Aedes albopictus (Skuse), is an invasive species and a major pest problem in urban and suburban locales in New Jersey. To assess its potential role as an arbovirus vector, we sampled Ae. albopictus from two New Jersey counties over a 3-yr period and estimated the prevalence of virus infection by Vero cell culture and rever...