With nuisance mosquito species, the goal of integrated pest management is to keep mosquito density below a tolerance level that is often set by economic, ecological, and political factors. This study compares actual human annoyance, as measured by a phone survey, with several measures of mosquito abundance, in order to determine a threshold that is both relevant and practical. The efficiency of CO2-baited traps, container index (CI), and oviposition traps for monitoring Aedes albopictus, and CO2-baited traps for monitoring Aedes caspius, was evaluated. CO2-baited traps were confirmed to be of low efficiency in Ae. albopictus collection, while correlation matrices showed a good relationship between CI and the number of eggs collected (R = 0.91), and between number of eggs and phone-survey nuisance level estimates (R = 0.88). Correlation between CI and phone-survey nuisance levels was slightly lower (R = 0.78). We found a close relationship between the nuisance level declared by residents and mosquito captures obtained with CO2-baited traps (Ae. caspius) and ovitraps (Ae. albopictus). An equation is presented to estimate annoyance according to dwelling characteristics and to the presence of children in the family.
How to translate text using browser tools
1 September 2008
Tolerance Thresholds for Aedes albopictus and Aedes caspius in Italian Urban Areas
Marco Carrieri,
Romeo Bellini,
Simona Maccaferri,
Lorenza Gallo,
Stefano Maini,
Giorgio Celli
ACCESS THE FULL ARTICLE
It is not available for individual sale.
This article is only available to subscribers.
It is not available for individual sale.
It is not available for individual sale.
Aedes albopictus
Aedes caspius
CO2-baited trap
Container index
monitoring
mosquito
oviposition trap