Tolerance thresholds for Aedes albopictus and Aedes caspius in Italian urban areas

• Published in: Journal of the American Mosquito Control Association Vol. 24; no. 3; p. 377
• Main Authors: Carrieri, Marco, Bellini, Romeo, Maccaferri, Simona, Gallo, Lorenza, Maini, Stefano, Celli, Giorgio
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States 01-09-2008
• Subjects: Adolescent; Adult; Aedes; Aged; Animals; Cities; Decision Making; Female; Humans; Insect Control - methods; Insect Control - standards; Interviews as Topic; Italy; Male; Middle Aged; Population Density; Public Opinion; Urban Population; Italy
• ISSN: 8756-971X
• DOI: 10.2987/5612.1

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.