The Times of India             13.02.2014

Mosquitos not the only city insects that bite, says AMC

AHMEDABAD: Those irritating pink itchy bumps on your arm and foot may not be just caused by the stinging mosquito alone. Health officials claim that a large number of insects, like culex mosquitoes Culicoides, which are biting midges and show a stark resemblance to mosquitoes and white flies, have literally outnumbered disease-causing mosquitoes. The disease-causing female anopheles mosquito causes malaria and falciparum and Aedes aegypti causes chikungunya and dengue.

Early January till late February sees a literal explosion in the number of the Culicoides and white flies, which then disappear by the onset of summer. "Many mistake these nuisance biting insects for mosquitoes. Culicoides for instance does look like a mosquito but it's the brown spots on its wings and small mouth that distinguishes itself from the regular mosquitoes. In winter, malarial and dengue-causing mosquitoes are least active. They need a particular temperature to proliferate and be active," explains a senior health official in AMC.

In January this year, Gomtipur for instance, the mosquito density per room was calculated to be 10.25-all of these was culex mosquito which is not a vector for malaria, dengue or Chikungunya. In Sabarmati ward, if the insect density was 7.25 per room, 5 of those mosquitoes were culex and only one was the dengue-causing Aedes aegypti. In the following month in areas like Jamalpur if there were 13.5 insects per room, 12 were culex.

White flies, according to the health official, are found in huge numbers wherever there is dense vegetation like in Shahibaugh or near fields that grow castor or cabbage or other leafy vegetables near water bodies.

Areas like Sabarmati, Jamalpur, Lambha, Naroda Muthiya, Amraiwadi, Khokhra, Sarkhej and Kankaria are already seeing a large number of these insects.

"Our advice to residents in these high-density nuisance insect areas, is to use repellants and throw out water stored for more than two or three days. We have started surveillance activities in various wards before the next cycle of mosquito-related diseases begin," adds the AMC health official.