Household expenditure on control of urban mosquitoes Aedes albopictus and Culex pipiens in Emilia-Romagna, Northern Italy

Massimo Canali, Laura Vici, Stefano Rivas Morales, Luciano Donati, Carmela Matrangolo, Claudio Venturelli, Paola Angelini, Michele Dottori, Romeo Bellini and Marco Carrieri

PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases, 2024, vol. 18, issue 10, 1-18

Abstract: Background: In 2007, the first outbreak of Chikungunya in Italy generated great alarm, highlighting the health risks caused by exotic species recently introduced in Europe and the need to strengthen control actions against the vectors. Besides health risks, mosquitoes cause nuisance, and citizens are required to adopt control measures. While the economic aspects of mosquito control by public agencies have been investigated, the scientific literature on the costs of mosquito protection incurred by families is scarce. Methodology/Principal findings: A phone questionnaire survey was conducted to collect data on the annual expenditure incurred by households for self-protection against mosquitos in relation to the perceived level of nuisance and the household and dwelling characteristics. Univariate and multivariate analyses were conducted to identify the main determinants influencing such expenditure, which resulted affected by dwelling characteristics, presence of children under 6 years of age, and health concerns of family members. The average annual household expenditure was estimated at 84.63 euros, about 30 times higher than the expenditure per household supported by regional and local administrations for interventions against mosquitoes in public areas, as calculated in a previous study. Conclusion/Significance: Household expenditure is mainly aimed at providing a direct defense against mosquito bites (mosquito nets, adulticides, skin-on repellents, etc.) while spending for more effective measures addressed to reduce mosquito density results marginal: e.g., only 3.5% of the total expenditure was dedicated to larval control. Author summary: To achieve effectiveness, mosquito control requires the adoption of integrated pest management (IPM) methods and comprehensive strategies in both public and private areas.

Date: 2024
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://journals.plos.org/plosntds/article?id=10.1371/journal.pntd.0012552 (text/html)
https://journals.plos.org/plosntds/article/file?id ... 12552&type=printable (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:plo:pntd00:0012552

DOI: 10.1371/journal.pntd.0012552

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases from Public Library of Science
Bibliographic data for series maintained by plosntds ().