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Times Forum online 8 Sep 05 Today Online 8 Sep 05 Fighting Aedes mosquitoes: Use breed-and-destroy method Letter from David Tio Pee Jin Here is an 'out of the box' solution to the problem of mosquitoes and dengue fever: breed mosquito larvae and destroy them. Mosquitoes need to lay their eggs. If we make sure that our homes etc do not provide breeding grounds, they would only go to lay their eggs elsewhere, in drains, puddles. There, every single egg will hatch, every larvae will develop into a mosquito and the mosquito population will increase. We will then need to keep fogging and introducing more toxic chemicals into the environment without really solving the problem. As someone pointed out in one of the Forum letters published online, fogging simply chases mosquitoes to a different location without killing them. According to the posters I see on the buses, one mosquito plus one drop of water equals hundreds of larvae. If every household were to breed and destroy just 100 larvae, one block of flats alone could destroy tens of thousands of larvae. Multiply that across the whole island and we will reduce the next generation of mosquitoes by tens of millions. Destroying larvae is easy. Just flush them down the toilet, add salt to the water, or pour out the water onto the pavement and leave it to dry. There are many ways to do it. If necessary, NEA officials can teach households how to breed and destroy larvae. This is much easier than trying to destroy mosquitoes which are flying around and we don't even know where they are. If we keep breeding and destroying larvae, the population of mosquitoes will get smaller and smaller. Today Online 9 Sep 05 They can check in, but ... Letter from Dr Ng Swee Ching I refer to "Breed Aedes larvae to stem dengue fever" (Sept 8). Let me suggest a similar strategy to combat the menace. To me, it is next to impossible to locate every breeding ground in Singapore. What about the graveyard and the parks? If it is difficult to rid the woods and forest of illegal immigrants, I do not think it is possible to find all the tiny larvae. I would instead suggest that every Singaporean set up a "5-star hotel" for the mosquitoes. The Government can tell us what type of nesting environment the mosquitoes like best — be it warm, stagnant water under a shade or in a dark setup. Every Singaporean can then set up one such place in their home. Since the eggs hatch every seven days, the residents can replace the "hotel" every three days or less and destroy the eggs. . It is possible that this procedure of letting the mosquitoes come to us, rather then finding them, will work. It could be more cost effective too. links Related articles on Singapore: dengue issues, policies, discussions |
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