Summary of Study Session 9

In Study Session 9, you have learned that:

1. Malaria vectors breed in different types of water collections.
2. Environmental management and larval control refers to any action aimed at eliminating vectors and vector breeding sites.
3. You can modify the environment permanently in ways that are unfavourable for vector breeding.
4. The environment can also be manipulated to deter vector breeding temporarily.
5. 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.
6. 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.
7. 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.
8. Temephos is the most important and widely used larvicide for larval control in Ethiopia; water collections are mainly treated using spray pumps.