Aedes albopictus bionomics data collection by citizen participation on Procida Island, a promising Mediterranean site for the assessment of innovative and community-based integrated pest management methods

In the last decades, the colonization of Mediterranean Europe and of other temperate regions by Aedes albopictus created an unprecedented nuisance problem in highly infested areas and new public health threats due to the vector competence of the species. The Sterile Insect Technique (SIT) and the Incompatible Insect Technique (IIT) are insecticide-free mosquito-control methods, relying on mass release of irradiated/manipulated males, able to complement existing and only partially effective control tools. The validation of these approaches in the field requires appropriate experimental settings, possibly isolated to avoid mosquito immigration from other infested areas, and preliminary ecological and entomological data. We carried out a 4-year study in the island of Procida (Gulf of Naples, Italy) in strict collaboration with local administrators and citizens to estimate the temporal dynamics, spatial distribution, and population size of Ae. albopictus and the dispersal and survival of irradiated males. We applied ovitrap monitoring, geo-spatial analyses, mark-release-recapture technique, and a citizen-science approach. Results allow to predict the seasonal (from April to October, with peaks of 928–9,757 males/ha) and spatial distribution of the species, highlighting the capacity of Ae. albopictus population of Procida to colonize and maintain high frequencies in urban as well as in sylvatic inhabited environments. Irradiated males shown limited ability to disperse (mean daily distance travelled
Author summary Mosquitoes represent a nuisance as well as public health risk due to their ability to transmit pathogens to humans. The Asian tiger mosquito Aedes albopictus is an invasive species nowadays established in all Mediterranean countries, reaching highest abundance in Italy. Innovative control approaches have been proposed to complement conventional ones and to increase the success of the fight against this aggressive day-biting species, but still need to be validated in the field. Small islands are ideal places for these validation experiments as they are naturally protected by the spill over of mosquitoes from neighbouring untreated areas. The island of Procida, in the gulf of Naples (Italy), has the right ecological characteristics (e.g., homogeneous landscape and high densities of human and Ae. albopictus populations) to represent an ideal experimental site. In collaboration with the Municipality and the residents we obtained relevant data on the mosquito distribution and seasonality on the island and performed preliminary experiments, creating an instrumental baseline information which will facilitate the effective testing of novel control schemes.