The Pest Control Section of the Dubai
municipality has adopted a policy which calls for non-chemical control
techniques to be used wherever possible to control pests of public health
concern such as rodents, cockroaches, mosquitoes and flies.
The Pest Control Section is also banning the use of
emulsifiable concentrate (EC) pesticide formulations inside homes and commercial
premises because of the health hazards posed by the volatile formulants. Instead
pesticides formulated as micro-encapsulated products will be used.
The Pest Control Section has set targets for tight levels of
control or the complete elimination of key pests including:
cockroach infestations from supermarkets and wholesale markets eliminated by 1998;
no indigenous transmission of malaria;
less than 10% of mosquito breeding sites to be positive for Culex spp. And less than 2% to be positive for Anophles spp. (malaria transmitting species) by 2001;
all food warehouses, hotels and food factories to have approved pest control programmes by 1999;
mosques, public buses and laundries to be free of bed bugs (Cimex spp) by 1998.
[This
article first appeared in Pesticides News No. 36,
June 1997, page 19]