Abstract
Abstract. Laboratory experiments with food-deprived larvae of odonates suggested that these predators may have the potential to control mosquito populations. However, it remains unclear whether larvae of odonates co-occur with mosquito larvae in the field and whether larvae of odonates reduce the density of mosquito larvae in the field. We exposed 35 water-filled concrete containers in the field in shady and sunny conditions. Some of these containers were partially covered (for simplicity called closed containers, allowing only mosquitoes to lay eggs), whereas others remained open. The density of mosquito larvae was higher in shaded containers and in closed containers. The multivoltine odonate Bradinopyga strachani colonized open containers and the occurrence of these predators resulted in a clear reduction of the mosquito population. Our results indicate that increasing the colonization of water bodies by Bradinopyga strachani is a promising strategy for controlling populations of mosquitoes.
Highlights
Mosquitoes are vectors of severe diseases, such as malaria, yellow fever, chikungunya, dengue fever, lymphatic filariasis, Rift Valley fever, and Zika fever (World Health Organization, 2016a)
In Africa, dengue fever is endemic in countries, countries have a high risk of yellow fever, lymphatic filariasis is endemic in 39 countries and 188 million cases of malaria occur across the entire region (World Health Organization, 2013, 2016b, c, d, 2017)
Both B. strachani and O. austeni successfully bred in an older irrigation pond within the study area; no mosquito larvae were recorded in this pond
Summary
Mosquitoes are vectors of severe diseases, such as malaria, yellow fever, chikungunya, dengue fever, lymphatic filariasis, Rift Valley fever, and Zika fever (World Health Organization, 2016a). In Ghana, malaria alone is responsible for about 14 000 deaths of children per year (Ministry of Health & Ghana Health Service, 2013). Treatment of these mosquitoborne diseases comes at a substantial cost (Kokwaro, 2009) and the vaccination against malaria has had little success (Gosling and Von Seidlein, 2016). Affordable and environmentally friendly methods of controlling larval (and adult) mosquitoes need to be developed
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