ABUNDANCE AND DIVERSITY OF NON-MOSQUITO INSECTS OF IMPORTANCE FOUND DURING MOSQUITO SURVEILLANCE IN SELECTED RURAL HOUSES IN KWARA STATE, NIGERIA
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Date
2021
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ABSTRACT: Insects control interventions in rural communities usually focus on malaria mosquitoes, neglecting other inimical entomological species. This study gives an account of abundance and diversity of non-mosquito insects of importance found during Pyrethrum Spray Collection (PSC) of endophilic mosquitoes in two rural communities in Kwara State, Nigeria. Non-mosquito insects found during mosquito surveillance in the two communities between August and October 2014 were collected and identified. Webbing clothes moths Tineola spp and Phorid flies Megaselia spp represented at least 20% of the non-mosquito insect species collected in each community. Phorid flies (28.8%), clothes moths (28.2%), silverfish Lepisma spp (38.7%) and carpenter ants Camponotus spp (4.3%) were found in both communities. Association of phorid flies with human myiasis and potential economic damage the cloth moth and silverfish could bring to scarcely available resources such as clothing and starch-based materials call for the sensitization of rural community residents on the economic importance of these insects. Indoor residual spraying of insecticides which is usually conducted against mosquitoes may as well control these other insects. However, improved housing and living conditions remain the permanent solution.