The demand for mosquito trapping device that the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) created has grown as number of deaths and patients falling ill due to dengue continues to rise.
Residents have been asking the DOST to provide them with additional mosquito trap device known as the ovicidal/larvicidal trap system that the agency has been giving away since May.
The device is made of a small black plastic bucket filled with a natural solution that kills mosquito eggs once they are trapped inside the container.
Engr. Fehlander Madriaga, DOST provincial chief, said his office is working on the release of additional mosquito traps since the current supply is intended for households that have been pre-identified as recipients.
He said the DOST has already released 4,000 anti-dengue kits to households in Laoag, Batac, Dingras and San Nicolas where cases of dengue are high.
In Laoag, the city health office has recorded 187 dengue cases and five deaths since January while Dingras recorded 72 dengue incidents as of end of July. The outbreak of dengue cases in Dingras prompted officials to declare the town under calamity state.
The DOST also provides the households of free pellet refill good for six months or until November.
“We could not release additional kits at the moment because we have ran out of containers. What we merely supply now are the pellets (that is converted as solution),” he said.
He advised residents to create their own plastic containers so that they could make use of the pellets that the DOST will provide.
Madriaga said the pellets are not yet commercially available but a private company has been tapped to manufacture the product.
He said residents have found the kit effective because it has been trapping the dengue-causing mosquitoes.
The device can be placed in the backyard, garden area and inside the house where mosquitoes can be found and trapped.
According to DOST, the trap may last up to two months, outliving a generation of mosquitoes which has a lifespan of only one month.
The device costs no more than P50 while a sachet of pellet only costs P2. A household only consumes four sachets per week. (ANL/CCA-PIA 1 Ilocos Norte)
