Temporal Viability of and Eggs Using Two Hygroscopic Substances as Preservatives under a Sterile Insect Technique (SIT) Program in Southern Mexico.

Dengue and other -borne diseases have dramatically increased over the last decades. The Sterile Insect Technique (SIT) has been successfully used as part of integrated pest strategies to control populations of insect-plant and livestock pests and is currently being tested as a potential method to reduce mosquito populations in an environmentally friendly approach. However, during the mass rearing steps needed to produce millions of mosquitoes, egg storage and preservation are essential for a certain amount of time. Eggs of   have a chorionic pad that functions as a sticky substance to glue them onto the inner walls of larval breeding sites. The chorionic pad is chemically made of hyaluronic acid, a hygroscopic compound, responsible to protect them from desiccation over time. Two commercial products with hygroscopic properties, hydrolyzed collagen, and Hyalurosmooth, both were tested to assess their ability to prolong egg life storage for . and . . Results showed that 85-95% of . eggs were able to hatch up to week 8 after being treated with both hydrophilic compounds, compared with the control 66.3%. These two substances showed promising effects for keeping eggs viable during prolonged storage in mass rearing insect production focused on vector control SIT programs.