Novel Trap for Ticks and Fleas Incorporating a CO2 Generator

Military personnel must be protected from diseases transmitted by ticks and fleas, including Lyme disease. Effective surveillance of tick and flea vectors is vital to determine the population present, whether they are carrying disease, and whether control campaigns are working. Unfortunately, current surveillance tools are ineffective. In Phase I TDA designed, prototyped, and tested a novel tick and flea trap that utilized our previously developed portable CO2 generator as an attractant (Figure 1). We used laboratory tests to identify some of the key operating parameters, including the CO2 flow rate, and verified the performance of the trap in field tests. The trap design incorporates features to retain the catch, while making them easy to recover for identification and analysis for diseases. In Phase II we will complete development ad supply DoD with prototype traps, again using laboratory and field tests to optimize the design.