Dengue Fever

[seabear]

Just spent 6 days in a hospital with Dengue Fever. No fun. (Even if some of the nurses were quite charming.)

Now I want to get rid of the mosquitoes. Some Tetsaban staff came 2 times already, with their fogging equipment. Less mosquitoes now, but still have.

Was reading about a larvicide called "ABATE".

Wonder if it is any good and where it can be bought in Phuket.

seabear

[HeavyDrinker]

Nicotine (tobacco) is an excellent larvicide. I bought large packet of hand rolling tobacco for only 5 baht a few years ago which I administered to the local 'pond' as no bugger else seemed to be bothered that mossies were flooding out of there.

Any organophosphate based larvicide such as Abate (which is really Temephos) is equally good however you only need to use it sparingly if you can buy it here. If you have any mates coming from Australia they sell it there under the name 'Assassin'

As a former victim of Dengue myself I wish you a full recovery.

[tim armstrong]

Hi Sea bear,

Very sorry to hear about the dengue, nasty one to get. I used to work in the dengue fever capitol of the world - East Timor. In the time I was there, the UN, Aus Army and various other agencies tried everything to kill the mozzies including larvacides. The DEET fogging idea worked around buildings, as did washing your clothes in DEET. Larvazides worked for a while.

The main drawback for the local population was open water supplies, drains and standing water in drums etc. Also too many large shade trees close to houses. I think standing water even inside a bathroom 'ang nahm' soon breeds the little buggers.

Recently we seemed to have an increased problem at night. When I investigated, there were a few too many large lotus bowls and other containers near the house without any fish in them. We have larger tanks as well, but all with fish, and no mozzies.

If you ever go to Cabbages and Condoms restaurant in Pattaya, you'll notice that their fantastic tropical garden has water and mist everywhere, but there are virtually no mozzies. I asked them about it, they said lemongrass, planted all over the place. ie.the variety that does repel mozzies.

Maybe you're Ok with chemicals, and for sure they work in the short term, but I guess we'd all prefer to use something else. Whoever finds a solution will be wealthy indeed.