Summary

In this study session, you have learned that:

• Malaria vectors breed in different types of water collections.
• Environmental management and larval control refers to any action aimed at eliminating vectors and vector breeding sites.
• You can modify the environment permanently in ways that are unfavourable for vector breeding.
• The environment can also be manipulated to deter vector breeding temporarily.
• Borrow-pits that collect rain water and are not used by humans or animals can be filled by soil, sand or stone to avoid vector breeding.
• Micro-ponds used to harvest rainwater for irrigation and horticulture can be modified in design to deny access to egg-laying mosquitoes, or cleared of vegetation to make them unsuitable for sheltering larvae.
• Community participation is key to mosquito larval control through environmental management interventions, such as digging drainage ditches, filling pools or covering small containers where rain water collects.
• Temephos is the most important and widely used larvicide for larval control in Ethiopia; water collections are mainly treated using spray pumps.