EIGHT YEARS OF INTEGRATED MOSQUITO CONTROL PROGRAMS IN NORTHERN GREECE: A SUCCESSFUL EXAMPLE OF APPLIED ECOLOGY

摘要

In the agricultural and touristic areas of the Northern Greece for at least four months in a year people suffer from a huge nuisance from the presence of 90% of the rice cultures and about 70% of the natural wetlands of Greece, the two main mosquito habitats. In 1997 for the first time an Integrated Mosquito Control Program was carried out by Ecodevelopment S.A., which concerned 16 500 ha of rice fields. The exclusive method was larviciding. During 2004 the company carried out large scale Mosquito Abatement Programs in 10 prefectures of the state. The great success of these programs is based upon a series of innovations introduced by Ecodevelopment: Larviciding as abatement method assures effectiveness on the one hand and environmental computability, on the other. Mosquito breeding site mapping ensures systematic monitoring for 17 500 ha of rice cultures, 9364 ha of natural wetlands, over 4000 breeding sites in the peri-urban system, and over 23 000 homesites from 146 communities of 78 municipalities of the Northern Greece. Selection of entomological data concerning mosquito larvae as well as adults, provide important information about species composition and population development. Finally from 1999 until now effectiveness of Mosquito Control Programs is evaluated in collaboration with the Biology department of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki using the method of personal interviews (about 1000 questionnaires per year).