Cemeteries are ideal urban areas to study the importance
of different types of containers as breeding sites of
Aedes aegypti
(L.). In the present study, the suitability of plastic, glass, ceramic and
metal containers was evaluated in four patches within a cemetery of Buenos
Aires City, Argentina. Between October 1998 and May 2000, we found 215 breeding
sites of
Ae. aegypti
out of 13,022 water-filled containers examined. In two patches containing
microenvironments sheltered from the sun, the use of the different types
of containers was proportional to the offer (correlation coefficient = 0.99,
P < 0.05 in both cases). In the remaining patches, plastic and metal
containers were the most and less frequent breeding sites, respectively
(P < 0.001 in both cases). The number of immatures per breeding site
(median = 4.5) did not show significant differences among the four types
of containers examined (H
3, 215
= 1.216, P = 0.749). Differences found in patches from a same cemetery suggest
that different microenvironmental conditions affect the suitability of each
type of container for Ae. aegypti breeding. Plastic containers appeared
as key breeding sites that should be removed to reduce the Ae. aegypti population
in the study area.
