The items included in the programme are classified in three areas of action:
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Expert advice, tools and technical training for local councils:
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Expert advice in relation to the drafting of a by-law.
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Tools for the efficient management of the programme: drawing up maps of possible breeding spots, technical advice, civic and environmental training, evaluation of larval controls.
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Information. Dissemination and awareness raising among the population:
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Education programme for schools.
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Information campaigns in the media.
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Pedagogical and awareness-raising actions.
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Creation of a network of volunteers to keep up to date with the activity of adult mosquitoes in the municipality.
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Surveillance and coordination:
- Entomological surveillance actions in order to know the status of the spread of the mosquito and the density of the existing population, and in order to coordinate the actions necessary to combat it.
Actions:
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a) Maps: Municipalities that wish to have maps of breeding spots in public spaces may request them from the SIMSAP (Municipal Information System on Public Health), if they have not already requested them in previous years. Once the maps are drawn up, a technical session is held when they’re delivered to the municipality in order to explain the gathered information.
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b) Schedule of actions: The programme provider will contact the municipal interlocutors in order to establish a schedule. Municipalities that wish to contact the provider (the Mosquito Control Service of the Bay of Roses and the Baix Ter Area) in order to explain their situation and to request an evaluation of the actions to be carried out, may do so by telephone (972 451 231) or email (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.).
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c) Technical dossier: A technical dossier is produced of the actions carried out in municipalities and their results. This data will be included in the annual report of the programme’s actions.
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d) Educational project: The Mosquito Control Service contacts schools to offer an education project, which will be carried out in all the centres that request it.
Who’s responsible for combating the spread of the tiger mosquito?
According to the legislation in force, local councils are obliged to control urban pests within their municipality in order to guarantee public health. Dipsalut (the public health body of Girona Provincial Council), in partnership with the Voluntary Intermunicipal Association of the Mosquito Control Service of the Bay of Roses and the Baix Ter Area, supports them in this task by offering programmes for the surveillance, monitoring and control of the tiger mosquito. Supra-municipal bodies are also involved in the control of this particular pest, since it can be a disease carrier.
In 2010, the Ministry of Health of the Government of Catalonia launched the “Interinstitutional Commission for the Prevention and Control of the Tiger Mosquito in Catalonia”. This body brings together all the institutions and services that control the tiger mosquito in different parts of Catalonia in order for them to jointly draw up a Catalonia-wide strategy that establishes common areas of action for the various existing initiatives.
The results of the commission’s work were published in 2011 in the document entitled “Strategy for the prevention and control of the tiger mosquito in Catalonia”.
Spread of the tiger mosquito
The tiger mosquito is present in all five continents. Globalisation and goods transport have enabled this insect of the order Diptera to colonise the world. In Europe, it appeared for the first time in 1979, in Albania. It gradually spread throughout Italy, France, the former Yugoslavia, Belgium, Hungary, Holland, Switzerland and Greece. In Catalonia, it was detected for the first time in 2004, in Sant Cugat del Vallès.
The tiger mosquito is currently present in more than 180 Catalan municipalities. It has been detected in all the counties of the Girona area except Cerdanya, and it continues to spread. It has been shown that the spread of this mosquito is greater in areas where there is more movement of people.
