Fig 1.
Map of the locations of the traps in Texas, USA, Mexico, and Guatemala during 2022-2024.
BRGVSP: Bentsen-Rio Grande Valley State Park; ELGSP: Estero Llano Grande State Park; RDLPSP: Resaca De La Palma State Park; PR: private residence. Administrative boundaries were obtained from the Natural Earth database (https://www.naturalearthdata.com) using the R packages rnaturalearth and rnaturalearthhires.
Fig 2.
Diagram of the evaluation locations of Kissing Bug Kill Trap in Texas, Guatemala, and Mexico with different trap prototypes (Table 1) deployed from 2022-2024.
Table 1.
Descriptions of the Kissing Bug Kill Trap in various Multitrap and Lindgren trap modifications tested for capability to capture triatomines in 2022-2024. Modifications are described in trap length, funnel number, size and color, and LED light-solar panel configurations.
Fig 3.
Kissing Bug Kill Trap prototypes evaluated in 2022.
A) 6-funnel Multitrap trap with two large light panels deployed in Texas (TRAP1); B) 6-funnel Multitrap trap with 4 small light panels deployed in Texas (TRAP2), C) TRAP1 prototype deployed in Guatemala, D) TRAP2 prototype deployed in Guatemala.
Fig 4.
Five Kissing Bug Kill Trap prototypes evaluated in Texas in 2023.
A) TRAP2A, Multitrap with 6 funnels and 4-panel lights; B) Lindgren black funnel trap with 8 funnels and 4-panel lights (TRAP4); C) Lindgren black funnel with 4 funnels and 4-panel light (TRAP5); D) Lindgren blue funnel trap with 8 funnels and 4-panel light; E) Lindgren blue funnel trap with 8 funnels and blue LED light strips (TRAP7); F) Lindgren black funnel nested together with 11 funnels and small LED (TRAP-MEXICO).
Fig 5.
Kissing Bug Kill Traps deployed in Texas in 2024.
Group one compares Multitraps with A) TRAP8, 3 funnels, B) TRAP2A. 6 funnels, C) TRAP9, 9 funnels, and D) TRAP10, 12 funnels, and Group 2 compares Multitraps with E) TRAP2A, 4 LED lights above the rainguard, F) TRAP11, 4 LED lights on the perimeter of rainguard, G) TRAP12, 4 LED lights under the rainguard, and H) TRAP13 5 LED lights under the rainguard.
Table 2.
Total numbers of triatomines caught and operational days for each trap prototype in Texas in 2022 with means for trap performance and by-catch ratio calculated. A generalized mixed linear model was used to compare trap performance and by-catch ratio with TRAP1 as reference. Asterisk indicates significant difference from TRAP1 (p < 0.05). Dash indicates that the trap was not evaluated at the location. The two San Antionio locations are at the Joint Base San Antonio (JBSA)-Lackland Chapman Training Annex.
Table 3.
Total number of triatomines caught and operational days for each trap prototype in Guatemala from 2022-2024 with mean trap performance and by-catch ratio calculated. A generalized mixed linear model disclosed no significant differences in trap performance and by-catch ratio with TRAP1 as reference.
Table 4.
Total number of triatomines caught and operational days for each trap prototype in Texas in 2023 with mean trap performance and by-catch ratio calculated. A generalized mixed linear model was used to compare trap performance and by-catch ratio with TRAP2A trap as a reference. Asterisks indicate significant difference from TRAP2A (p ≤ 0.05). The two San Antionio locations are at the Joint Base San Antonio (JBSA)-Lackland Chapman Training Annex.
Table 5.
Total number of triatomines caught and operational days for trap prototypes with different numbers of funnels in Texas in 2024 with mean trap performance and by-catch ratio calculated. A generalized mixed linear model disclosed no significant differences in trap performance and by-catch ratio with the TRAP2A trap as reference. San Antonio-1 and San Antonio-3 are at the Joint Base San Antonio (JBSA)-Lackland Chapman Training Annex.
Table 6.
Total number of triatomines caught and operational days for trap prototypes with different light configurations in Texas in 2024 with mean trap performance and by-catch ratio calculated. A generalized mixed linear model was used to compare trap performance and by-catch ratio with the TRAP2A trap as reference. Asterisks indicate a significant difference from TRAP2A (p ≤ 0.05).
Fig 6.
Number of each triatomine species and sex collected from the traps from 2022-2024.
Fig 7.
Weekly phenology of Triatoma gerstaeckeri catch per day per trap in 2022-2024 at south Texas and San Antonio.
The trap data for all south Texas locations and all San Antonio locations are averaged.
Fig 8.
Weekly number of by-catch per day per trap in 2022-2024 at south Texas and San Antonio.
The trap data for all south Texas locations and all San Antonio locations are averaged.