How do you stop mosquitoes breeding at home?

How to prevent mosquito breeding at home

Mosquito control at home starts with water. NEA's Stop Dengue Now page explains that the Aedes mosquito prefers to breed in clean, stagnant water, which is easily found in homes. It needs very little: water as small in volume as a 20-cent coin is enough. NEA asks you to do the Mozzie Wipeout at least once a week to stop that breeding, and its campaign is called B-L-O-C-K.

Some checks are habits to keep at all times. Others come round every other day, once a week or once a month. The next section sets them out in one table.

The routine checks

NEA's Checklist for a Mozzie-Free Home groups each check by how often it needs doing.

Skip any line that does not apply to your home, such as roof gutters if you have none. Keep the small items, though: a 20-cent coin of water is enough for breeding.

For other wet-weather jobs, see our post on monsoon season home care.

Hidden spots: trays, gully traps and plant pots

Aircon trays

NEA's checklist says trays or receptacles should not be placed beneath or on any aircon unit. If a tray is needed for other issues, NEA's advice is to install HDB's patented aircon tray and still check it for chokes at the drainage point. If a tray is only there to catch drips, deal with the drip instead; see our page on aircon leaking water.

Gully traps and floor traps

For rarely used gully traps, NEA's checklist asks you to cover them, replace them with non-perforated ones and install an anti-mosquito valve.

HDB's floor trap advice includes installing an anti-mosquito device and, if a floor trap will not be used for a long time (for example during an overseas holiday), sealing its cover temporarily. To prevent chokes, HDB asks you to keep the grating closed and not to pour cooking oil or discard food waste and solid items down the floor trap or sink. If water overflows from a floor trap, HDB says solid matter or grease is blocking it: remove the solid materials, and for serious cases engage a licensed plumber. If it keeps happening, compare companies for choked drain clearing.

Plant pots

Loosen hardened soil so water does not collect on it, and keep pots off scupper drains along common corridors so you do not block them.

Inspections and fines

NEA carries out dengue inspections of homes and fines homes found breeding mosquitoes, as its Stop Dengue Now page explains. NEA says these inspections help break the dengue transmission cycle, and the same page points readers to what goes on during inspections and how to identify NEA dengue inspection officers.

For a household, keeping to the routine checks is the practical way to avoid breeding being found.

Protecting yourself from bites

For dengue prevention, home measures go beyond removing water. NEA's protective actions against dengue are S-A-W, and its Stop Dengue Now page lists other protective measures too:

• Sleep under a mosquito net, especially in the day, as Aedes mosquitoes are predominantly day-biting.
• Install mosquito screens on windows and doors.
• Use a hand-held electronic mosquito zapper.

These help protect you from bites. They do not replace the weekly checks, which stop the breeding itself.

When to stop and call a professional

If water keeps pooling in a drain, trap or aircon tray after you clear it, have the choke cleared. For a floor trap, call a licensed plumber; for an aircon that drips, call an aircon company.

A part-time cleaner can include the weekly checks in each visit; add them to your part-time cleaner task list. If you were thinking of a domestic helper from another household, note the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) rule. MOM says it is an offence for a foreign domestic worker to take on part-time work for another household, even with her employer's consent. For part-time help, use a cleaning company; MOM lists Household Services Scheme companies.

What a cleaner charges depends on the job, so compare home cleaning prices. To keep the routine going, use the home maintenance calendar generator to put the weekly and monthly checks on a schedule.

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