Effect of electric shock on chironomid larvae, Chironomus yoshimatsui, Martin et Sublette, 1972, (Diptera: Chironomidae)

Abstract

We electrically shocked chironomid larvae and pupae under laboratory conditions and calculated the mortality in order to establish a method of physically controlling them. Larval mortalities increased in proportion to the number of times 180V direct current electricity (DC) was turned on. Mortalities were low with an alternating current (AC) of the same voltage. However, applying 260V AC increased mortalities proportionally to the number of times the AC was switched on or off. Applying 260V AC for 15 seconds produced approximately 50% mortalities, but frequencies of 20 through 190Hz had no influence. In these studies, no significant differences in mortalities were observed between larvae and pupae.