Monitoring larval populations of 'Aedes aegypti' in different residential districts of Jeddah governorate, Saudi Arabia

Abstract

House-to-house surveys of larval population of 'Aedes aegypti' were conducted to determine the importance of house index for each habitat in Jeddah governorate. In this study, we aimed to survey and monitor mosquito population and potential breeding sites by using House index (HI), Container index (CI), and Breteau index (BI). The statistical analysis showed that the presence of larval stages of 'Ae. aegypti' reported throughout the year inside houses in the studied locations (Ghuleel, Al-Balad, Al-Jameiah, Al-Nazlah Al-Yamaneyyah, and Al-Safa) with some significant differences among investigated areas showed that Ghuleel had highest and Al-Safa lowest in density of larvae, respectively. House indices of each study area compared with the highest ratio of standard WHO (5-10%) were as follows: 8.7, 7.6, 6.6, 6.22 and 4%, respectively, for the above sites (P<0.05). The results showed that there were significant differences among types of containers of water in the inspected houses. Large containers were most significant compared with medium and small containers. Container index (CI) was 12% (Ghuleel), 13% (Al-Balad) and 14% (Al-Jameiah), 12% (Al-Nazlah Al- Yamaneyyah) and 9% (Al-Safa), whereas Breteau index (BI) was 8, 6.6, 4.7, 4.5 and 1.43%, respectively. Significant increase in the density of larvae was found in November, March, June and January due to the effect of the environmental factors including temperature and humidity.