Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface and Acknowledgements
- PART I INTRODUCTION AND ORIGIN OF PESTICIDES IN RUNNING WATERS
- PART II THE ROLE OF LABORATORY AND EXPERIMENTAL METHODS IN EVALUATION
- PART III EVALUATION IN PEST CONTROL PROJECTS
- SIX Introduction to field sampling of aquatic macroinvertebrates in streams and rivers
- SEVEN Impact of insecticides used in control of the spruce budworm
- EIGHT Aquatic environmental effects of insecticides used in tsetse fly control
- NINE Effect on non-targets of larvicides applied to running waters for control of blackfly (Simulium) larvae
- TEN Impact of piscicides (and molluscicides)
- ELEVEN Herbicides and aquatic invertebrates
- Summary and assessment
- References
- Index
NINE - Effect on non-targets of larvicides applied to running waters for control of blackfly (Simulium) larvae
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 November 2011
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface and Acknowledgements
- PART I INTRODUCTION AND ORIGIN OF PESTICIDES IN RUNNING WATERS
- PART II THE ROLE OF LABORATORY AND EXPERIMENTAL METHODS IN EVALUATION
- PART III EVALUATION IN PEST CONTROL PROJECTS
- SIX Introduction to field sampling of aquatic macroinvertebrates in streams and rivers
- SEVEN Impact of insecticides used in control of the spruce budworm
- EIGHT Aquatic environmental effects of insecticides used in tsetse fly control
- NINE Effect on non-targets of larvicides applied to running waters for control of blackfly (Simulium) larvae
- TEN Impact of piscicides (and molluscicides)
- ELEVEN Herbicides and aquatic invertebrates
- Summary and assessment
- References
- Index
Summary
INTRODUCTION TO BLACKFLY CONTROL
Blackflies (Simuliidae) are biting flies which are widely distributed in both temperate and tropical regions. In some northern countries such as Canada their main economic importance is as biting and bloodsucking pests of humans and domestic stock. In other regions such as tropical Africa and Central America their main importance is in their role of vectors of human diseases such as onchocerciasis caused by a parasitic filarial worm. A feature common to all species of Simulium is their association with running waters which form the larval habitat. According to species and country, these habitats or breeding places may range from quite small trickling streams to very large rivers of Africa such as the Niger, the Zaire, the Volta and the Nile. In many of these rivers and larger streams the highest larval populations tend to be concentrated in the fast-flowing sections of turbulent water such as those associated with rapids and dam spillways.
Shortly after the discovery and rapid developments of DDT in the early 1940s, it was found that Simulium larvae are extremely sensitive to this insecticide and that, in some cases, effective larval control was still achieved many miles downstream from the point of application. This opened up entirely new possibilities for Simulium control on a large scale by effectively reducing or eradicating larval populations with insecticide. In one of these early and successful control operations DDT was applied at high dosages of 5–10 ppm, or even greater on occasions, which produced massive fish kills and drastic effects on other stream fauna.
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- Information
- Pesticide Impact on Stream FaunaWith Special Reference to Macroinvertebrates, pp. 175 - 211Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1987