MOSQUITO VECTOR POPULATION DURING DRY SEASON PERIODS

ABSTRACT

This study was carried out in Ugbor central road, Benin city, Edo state, Nigeria, to study the breeding ecology of mosquitoes in this area in the dry season and the influencing factors and activities that promote these breeding sites. Two gutters across four different locations in this area were sampled every two days, thrice a week, between the hours of 6:30am and 9:00am using a dipper of 7.5cm diameter in three scopes. The physical characteristics of the study sites were analysed based on the number of mosquito larvae collected from each and the most favourable breeding sites were the gutters at Ugbor market. There was no significant difference in the abundance of mosquito species collected across each study site (p>0.05). The result showed that Culex mosquito was the most abundant (85.54%) of all larvae collected, followed by Aedes (7.65%) and Anopheles (6.80%). The persistent occurrence of Culex mosquitoes pose some serious future epidemiological concerns to the inhabitants of the study area, as this specie is a known vector of Lymphatic filariasis, therefore, good consideration and implementation of measures to control these breeding sites should be inaugurated.