Colour Preference by Mosquitoes in Water Board Station at Runjin Sambo Area, Sokoto

Abstract

Mosquitoes play an important role in promoting the spread of many zoonotic diseases among vertebrates. Their presence and numbers were influenced by the availability of breeding sites. This study reports the occurrence and colour preferences of oviposition in man-made habitats under field conditions by female mosquitoes found in the Water Board Station at Runjin Sambo Area, Sokoto. A total of nine plastic buckets (2 litres) of different colours were used as artificial oviposition container. The colour chosen was black, blue, brown, pink, purple, red, white, and yellow. The containers were filled with an equal amount of water and placed under a shade at 5 cm interval and observed daily for seven days. Mosquito larvae were emptied into a bowl and counted. The result showed that Aedes and Culex larvae were oviposited in all the plastic container with high abundance in a red colour plastic container (25.10 and 26.30% respectively) while Anopheles larvae were more in the black container (25.5%) and Mansoni on brown (23.10%). This suggested that container colour was important in influencing the oviposition choices of some female mosquitoes breeding in artificial containers in the Water Board Station at Runjin Sambo Area Sokoto. It is hoped that the study will help in adopting control measures for the respective mosquito species.