Abstract

The mosquito parasite, Romanomermis culicivorax, was mass produced for the treatment of 144,000 m2 of Anopheles albimanus breeding area in El Salvador. The production of the necessary inoculum required the exposure of 1.6 × 106 first-instar Culex p. quinquefasciatus larvae to 137 × 106 preparasites (1:14 ratio) each week for 6 weeks. The method employed produced an average 13.7 g (ca. 2,200/g) of postparasitic nematodes per rearing tray (20,000 mosquitoes), a total of 6,392 g (14.1 lb) for the 6-week period, and 425 cultures.