title: Turtles.
abstract: Juvenile turtles have the capacity to eat more than 500 3rd and 4th instar mosquitos per day. Keeping one turtle in each water-storage tank during field trials for a dengue-control project in Honduras eliminated all mosquito production from the tanks. In Louisiana, keeping turtles in residential roadside ditches polluted by septic-tank effluent reduced Culex quinquefasciatus larvae and pupae by more than 99%. Turtles can serve as alternate hosts for Salmonella when kept in small pet containers, but the available evidence indicates that turtles create no Salmonella hazard in water-storage tanks or other mosquito-breeding habitats. Although turtles would probably not be practical for mosquito control in roadside ditches, they could be effective in storm-water catch basins or holding ponds.
authors.affiliation: New Orleans Mosquito and Termite Control Board, 6601 Stars & Stripes Blvd., New Orleans, LA 70126, USA.
authors.forename: Gerald G
authors.initials: GG
authors.lastname: Marten
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D009033:Culicidae / Q000502:physiology*; D006721:Honduras; D007814:Larva / Q000502:physiology; D008145:Louisiana; D009032:Mosquito Control / Q000379:methods*; D010572:Pest Control, Biological / Q000379:methods*; D011235:Predatory Behavior / Q000502:physiology*; D014426:Turtles / Q000382:microbiology / Q000502:physiology*