Mosquito Traps

  1. The National Environment Agency
  2. Corporate Functions
  3. Resources
  4. Research
  5. Mosquito Traps
  6. Source Reduction is Key

Source Reduction is Key

Source reduction, or the removal of mosquito breeding and breeding habitats, is the key to bringing down the mosquito population and dengue cases 

  • When used widely, the right mosquito traps may help to reduce the biting pressure, but would not be able to control the mosquito population or reduce the spread of disease in Singapore. This is because:
  1. Humans are much more attractive than mosquito traps, and emit all attractants in the right combination and proportions. Due to the high population density in Singapore, there are ample hosts for mosquitoes to blood feed upon, thus host-seeking mosquito traps would need to be extremely attractive to compete.
  2. Breeding habitats found in the environment are both abundant and attractive. Due to the warm tropical climate in Singapore, providing a very naturally conducive mosquito breeding environment, oviposition traps would need to be highly attractive as well as deployed in large enough numbers to compete. 
  • Thus with such competition from hosts and the natural environment in Singapore, mosquito traps would only be able to capture a small proportion of the mosquito population.
  • The best way to control the mosquito population and bring down disease cases is source reduction, or the removal of mosquito breeding and breeding habitats.
Source reduction reduces mosquito population and dengue cases