Abstract

SCHAPER, Stefan; HERNANDEZ, Francisco  and  SOTO, Lisbeth. La lucha contra el dengue: control biológico de larvas de Aedes aegypti empleando Mesocyclops thermocyclopoides (Crustácea). Rev. costarric. cienc. méd [online]. 1998, vol.19, n.1-2, pp.119-125. ISSN 0253-2948.

The most effective measure against dengue is the elimination of its insect vector, Aedes aegypti. For that purpose the most common action is the use of insecticides. This is controversial because is expensive, affects only adults forms, induce resistance, and polute environment. Nevertheless, biological control using natural predators like copepods (microcrustacea) has been successfully used in many countries. One of the largest genus of copepods living in rivers and ponds of Costa Rica is Mesocyclops thermocyclopoides. The aim of this paper is the evaluation of their activity against larvae of Ae. aegypti. In laboratory experiments was demostrated that one copepod is able to eliminate approximately 7 larvas per day. As a result, after 7 weeks of observation, the population of mosquitoes was eliminated from a cage where 40 adults were placed together with copepods in a plastic bow. The cage control had similar conditions except that in the bow there was water without copepods. At the end of the 7 weeks observation period, the number of adults almost doubled the original and the water contained 40 pupas. Scanning electron microscopy examination of larvas attacked by copepods showed lesions in their abdominal segments, and the siphon was cut in all cases. These promising data show that the Costa Rican copepod Mesocyclops thermocyclopoides can be successfully used as biological control of Aedes aegypti.

Keywords : Dengue; Aedes aegypti; biologic control; Mesocyclops thermocyclopoides.