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Suppression of Aedes aegypti (Diptera: Culicidae) using augmentative release of dragonfly larvae (Odonata: Libellulidae) with community participation in Yangon, Myanmar1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 July 2009

Anthony Sebastian
Affiliation:
Medical Entomology Research Division, Department of Medical Research, Ministry of Health, Yangon, Myanmar
Myint Myint Sein
Affiliation:
Medical Entomology Research Division, Department of Medical Research, Ministry of Health, Yangon, Myanmar
Myat Myat Thu
Affiliation:
Medical Entomology Research Division, Department of Medical Research, Ministry of Health, Yangon, Myanmar
Philip S. Corbet
Affiliation:
Department of Zoology, University of Edinburgh, UK

Abstract

A pilot field study, involving periodic augmentative release of predatory larvae of a dragonfly, Crocothemis servilia (Drury), to suppress a mosquito, Aedes aegypti (Linnaeus), was conducted during the rainy season in Yangon (Rangoon). More than 90% of pre-adult A. aegypti occurred in domestic water-storage containers. Evaluations of larval and adult numbers of A. aegypti were made half-monthly three times before, and seven times after, treatment began. Four laboratory-reared, three-week-old C. servilia larvae were placed in each major source of A. aegypti larvae immediately after the third evaluation and then monthly for three successive months. Such treatment reduced the larval population of A. aegypti to a very low level in two to three weeks and suppressed it progressively until the trial ended; the adult population was greatly reduced after about six weeks and was progressively diminished thereafter until the trial ended. The trial's success was ascribed to: the virtual confinement of pre-adult stages of the target mosquito to containers accessible to control operators; the behaviour, growth rate, survival and ready availability of the chosen species of dragonfly; and the awareness and enthusiastic participation of local householders.

Type
Original Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1990

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Footnotes

1

Fomerly Rangoon, Barma

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