Mosquito traps to be placed in residential areas to fight dengue

Woo Sian Boon Today Online 19 Mar 14;

SINGAPORE — As part of their efforts to control the spread of dengue here, the National Environment Agency (NEA) will be progressively placing gravi-traps in different residential areas to reduce the mosquito population.

Developed by the NEA’s Environmental Health Institute, gravi-traps are black cylindrical containers with sticky surfaces which will trap female Aedes mosquitoes looking for water surfaces to lay their eggs.

A trial was previously conducted from October until last month, where about 1,300 gravi-traps were placed in the Housing Board estates in Clementi and Bukit Panjang.

Said a NEA spokesperson: “Through tracking which Gravitraps are capturing mosquitoes, and analysing this data together with other field intelligence, we can obtain a better sense of which areas have a higher mosquito population and where there may be undiscovered sources of mosquito breeding, so that we can optimise our vector control efforts.”

Apart from the trial, NEA is also deploying Gravitraps in large dengue clusters to complement other mosquito control measures. Last year, about 1,500 Gravitraps were deployed in about 80 clusters.

For example, it was used to monitor the Orchard Road cluster, which became the largest dengue hotspot in December.

During his ministry’s committee of supply debate, Environment and Water Resources Minister Vivian Balakrishnan cautioned that the dengue outbreak which Singapore has been experiencing since last year is not over yet, although the numbers have come down significantly.

The number of dengue cases had hit a historic high of 22,170 cases last year, with 3,420 cases detected so far this year as of yesterday at 3.30pm.

NEA to place mosquito traps in more areas to curb dengue
Lee Zhengyi Channel NewsAsia 19 Mar 14;

SINGAPORE: In a bid to control the spread of dengue, the National Environment Agency (NEA) will be progressively deploying Gravitraps to more areas in Singapore.

Gravitraps are black cylindrical containers which trap female Aedes mosquitoes that are looking for water surfaces to lay their eggs.

Trapping them reduces the mosquito population.

Last year, it deployed 1,500 Gravitraps in 80 clusters, excluding Clementi and Bukit Panjang.

In a trial that took place from October 2013 to February 2014, NEA deployed around 1,300 Gravitraps at public housing estates in Clementi and Bukit Panjang.

Close to 800 Aedes mosquitoes were captured.

NEA said that these traps provide their officers with useful surveillance information that helps them when planning inspections and it also provides them with a better sense of the areas that have a higher mosquito breeding population.

The Gravitraps were developed by the NEA's Environmental Health Institute.

There have been more than 3,000 cases of dengue reported so far this year.

NEA said: "The Gravitraps are checked regularly to ensure that they are functioning properly. As the Gravitraps are an important tool in our fight against dengue, we seek the co-operation of members of the public not to remove or tamper with the Gravitraps.

"If members of the public come across Gravitraps that have been toppled, please contact 1800-CALL NEA (1800-2255632) to report."

- CNA/xq