Limassol wages war on yellow fever mosquito

The Limassol municipality will tackle the problem caused by the appearance of the Asian tiger mosquito that causes yellow fever, the health ministry, the municipality, and Cyprus University of Technology (Tepak) said on Monday.

In statements following a meeting in Limassol, the city’s mayor Nicos Nicolaides said that these types of mosquitos are not concerning, as the diseases they carry do not appear in Cyprus.

According to the University of California Riverside’s department of entomology, this mosquito is an aggressive biter that feeds primarily during the day and has a broad host range including humans, domestic and wild animals, and birds. It is a potential vector of encephalitis, dengue (all four serotypes), yellow fever and dog heartworm.

The mosquitoes are native to southeast Asia, and not to Cyprus.

Nicolaides said that the mosquitoes were found in the Ayios Ioannis and Apostolos Andreas area of Mesa Geitonia in Limassol.

The meeting was held on Monday by authorities of the municipality, with the deputy head of the Health Ministry Herodotos Herodotou and the head of the ecotoxicology research group at the department of environmental science at Tepak, Marlene Vasquez.

According to Nicolaides, during the meeting they decided to inform the public through letters or SMS and will create crews which will visit premises where there are reports of this mosquito.

“Where there is information, traps will be placed to confirm the presence of these mosquitoes and the process of informing the public will begin,” he said, adding that where mosquito breeding sites are found, spraying will be done.