Monitoring of larval habitats and mosquito densities in the Sudan savanna of Mali: implications for malaria vector control

In Mali, anopheline mosquito populations increase sharply during the rainy season, but are barely detectable in the dry season. This study attempted to identify the dry season mosquito breeding population in and near the village of Bancoumana, Mali, and in a fishing hamlet 5 km from this village and adjacent to the Niger River. In Bancoumana, most larval habitats were human made, and dried out in January-February. In contrast, in the fishing hamlet, productive larval habitats were numerous and found mainly during the dry season (January-May) as the natural result of drying riverbeds. Adult mosquitoes were abundant during the dry season in the fishermen hamlet and rare in Bancoumana. To the extent that the fishermen hamlet mosquito population seeds Bancoumana with the advent of the rainy season, vector control in this small hamlet may be a cost-effective way to ameliorate malaria transmission in the 40-times larger village.