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Keeping mosquito menace under check

With monsoon showers playing truant, the district health officials are keeping their fingers crossed that they will not have a dengue outbreak on their hands.

Scattered cases of dengue fever continue to come in, but people have not been serious about taking proper measures to check the mosquito menace, health workers complain. Source reduction, or ensuring that there are no breeding sites for mosquitoes, is a major component of vector control measures. However, awareness continues to be poor.

Dengue vectors breed only in fresh water. Even the tiny pool of rainwater inside a flowerpot could be the breeding place for these mosquitoes, especially as there are frequent spells of hot weather.

Flower vases, indoor plants, the drip-tray at the base of refrigerators, all become ideal egg-laying places for the mosquito species which spread dengue. These containers should be scraped and drained every two or three days because the eggs usually stick to the container walls by the water line.

Many houses have unused, traditional grinding stones located outdoors and these become a potential breeding place when rainwater fills the cavity.

C. Maya

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