Why use an Integrated Pest Management (IPM) program for mosquito control?
Successful IPM utilizes a combination of control strategies, including surveillance, source reduction, larvaciding, adulticiding (only when and if necessary), biological control, and education. Adulticiding alone is ineffective in controlling mosquito populations because it is difficult to get the adulticide to the inaccessible habitat of the adults. Mosquito larvae are left to continue their development, and they quickly replace the adults. In fact, mosquitoes can build up resistance if pesticides are overused. Aside from their ineffectiveness, pesticides can have long term ecological, environmental, and health impacts. The EPA encourages nonchemical mosquito control measures; therefore, in an IPM approach to mosquito control, adulticides play only a small part in overall mosquito control.
