Integrated Mosquito Control in Comporta, Portugal
Mourelatos Spiros1, Sandra Gewehr2 and Antonio Moreira3
1Ecodevelopment (Greece)
2Herdade da Comporta (Portugal)
A three-year mosquito control project is carried out by Ecodevelopment at Portugal (a coastal zone, 100 Km south of Lisbon): 2007 (implementation study), 2008 (pilot project), 2009 (foreseen control project). The predominant mosquito species in the region are: Culex theileri (mainly coming from the 1.000 ha of rice fields), Aedes caspius (originating from the coastal wetlands and partially from the rice fields) and Anopheles spp. (exclusively from the rice fields).
A detailed mapping of the most significant reproduction sites of the control area was concluded in 2007: 180 ha of coastal wetlands (ecological mapping) yielded 46 sampling stations; 1076 ha of rice
fields were divided into 611 plots. A first estimation of the productivity of the rice system was made during 2007: samples were taken from the 40% of the total plots of the rice fields on 3 occasions (mid June, July, August).
In 2008, the rice fields, the wetlands and the peri-urban system were monitored exhaustively on a 5-day basis and were treated with Bti when needed. An evaluation of the larval productivity of the
wetlands and the rice fields between years 2007 (no treatment) and 2008 (treatments from mid May to mid September) and adult samplings were made as well. Substantial divergences were found
between the Mediterranean and Atlantic wetlands and rice agro systems in Greece and Portugal respectively and these differences lead to different control strategies.