Insect Pest Control Newsletter, No. 101, July 2023

The Insect Pest Control (IPC) Subprogramme of the Joint FAO/IAEA Centre of Nuclear Techniques in Food and Agriculture provided and continues to provide technical assistance to the Lee County Mosquito Control District (LCMCD) in Florida, USA, on the development and implementation of a pilot Aedes aegypti suppression project by using the sterile insect technique (SIT) integrated with other suppression methods. The results show a significant reduction of the wild mosquito population in the second semester of 2020 and complete suppression in 2021 and 2022. Unfortunately, hurricane Ian destroyed the island completely in September 2022. Access by car was not possible anymore and the SIT activities had to stop. A key aspect of this success was a three-year-long pre-release period of baseline data collection based on entomological surveillance. The study aimed to compare ecological indexes between Sanibel Island (control area) and Captiva Island (SIT area) and the population dynamics of Ae. aegypti during high and low rainy seasons. The Ae. aegypti population fluctuated significantly on both islands between high and low rainy seasons, but there was no significant difference between Captiva and Sanibel Island for both seasons. The study emphasizes the importance of entomological data collection to understand the population dynamics of Ae. aegypti mosquitoes, including the impact of environmental factors such as temperature and precipitation. Another pilot mosquito project has been successful in Valencia, Spain. Since 2017, sterile male Ae. albopictus have been released in Valencia's Ribera Baixa region, leading to a 75 per cent decrease in Ae. albopictus mosquito population. In 2022, eight million sterile male mosquitoes were released in the Ribera Baixa pilot area. More detailed information on both mosquito projects can be found in specific articles in this Newsletter (as well as information in the previous Newsletter on pilot trials in Brazil, China, Cuba, and Sri Lanka). All those pilot trials have benefited from the considerable progress that has been made with the development of the SIT package for Aedes mosquitoes at the Insect Pest Control Laboratory (IPCL), mainly after 2016. Further R&D activities at the IPCL and in the Member States are required to allow the up scaling of these pilot trials to larger operational programmes.