Reduce Exposure to Mosquito Bites

  • When possible, stay within protected buildings during peak hours of mosquito activity (early morning and before dusk).

  • Wear clothing that covers as much of the skin as possible.

  • Properly apply repellant to clothes and exposed skin. Recommended repellants include DEET, picaridin, or IR3535 as an active ingredient. Follow all instructions on the product. Do not apply under clothes, around eyes or mouth, or on cuts, open wounds, or irritated skin. Apply to your hands first and use them to apply to your face. Adults should apply repellant to children. Avoid applying to children’s hands.

  • Use mosquito screens on windows and doors. Although Aedes aegypti is not primarily a night time biter, mosquito bed nets may be used for both sedentary activities and sleep. Mosquito screens are more effective when treated with Pyrethroid insecticides.

Reduce Mosquito Population

  • Use household insecticide to kill adults if biting occurs indoors. Follow all instructions on the product. The best application sites are in dark corners, under furniture and behind curtains. Avoid applying to cooking or food preparation utensils and surfaces that are frequently touched by people.

  • Drain stagnant water around home. Common breeding sites are potted plants (water accumulated on the soil or the plate), blocked drains or roof gutters, and roadside ditches. Discarded receptacles, tarps, and vegetation can also hold water. Mosquitoes can breed in a single bottle cap’s worth of water. Water kept for human use should be covered, and water that cannot be effectively drained should be treated with insecticide. Bacillus thuringiensis israelensis (Bti) is an effective larvicide that is safe for humans and the environment, commonly sold in "dunk" form.

  • Ovitraps: Stop mosquitos from breeding by giving them places to lay eggs and destroying them.

    • Traps consist of containers holding a quantity of water. Clean water is not needed and the containers do not need to be very large. Place in the water a partially submerged piece of cardboard, stick, leaf, or fabric (such as a sock), for female mosquitoes to land on.

    • Set out several traps around the home and in the yard in the shade. Number them so you remember every one of them.

    • Once a day, add liquid or powder soap into the containers, let sit an hour then pour out, into a plumbing system if possible or onto sand in the sun but not damp soil. Throughly wash the container to remove eggs that may be attached to the sides.

    • Refill and reset traps.

    • Each trap must be reset once a day; numbering the traps makes it easier to check each one. Missing a day is not too much of problem because the eggs take longer than that to hatch and develop, but waiting too long will create more mosquitoes.

    • For places where water is scarce it is important that very small amounts of dirty water are actually best for this. For places where soap is difficult to obtain, humanitarian organizations can focus on soap availability as a pragmatic way to reduce the mosquito population.

Travel Restrictions

Avoid travel to affected areas to reduce geographic spread, especially for pregnant women. People who have visited affected ares are encouraged to self-isolate for seven days in a screened home to prevent the infection of any local mosquitoes.