A comprehensive survey of mosquitoes (Diptera: Culicidae) was conducted in Swat Pakistan, from April to September during 2000. The survey involved the sampling of both, adult and immature stages of mosquitoes, and recovered a total of 21 species in five genera. Sampling of adult mosquitoes involved Pyrethrum spray collections, Man-biting collections, and Animal-biting collection. Immature stages of mosquitoes were collected from variety of habitats including springs, irrigation channels, rice fields, marshes, temporary pools, construction pools, agriculture pools, river margins, ditches, waste water drains, wells and tree holes. During the study most of the species built up their populations in June, July and August, while a few increased their populations in September. During the survey of immature stages, from a total of 138 samples taken, Cx. quinquefasciatus showed maximum frequency of occurrence (recovered from 48 samples) followed by An. maculatus (17 samples), Cx. pseudovishnui (14 samples), An. annularis and An. stephensi (13 samples each), Cx. bitaeniorhynchus (11 samples), An. splendidus (5 samples) and Cx. theileri (4 samples). The rest of the species occurred infrequently. The observations on habitat specificity of different species of mosquitoes showed the rice fields as the most favorable site for mosquito breeding (harboring 12 species) followed by river margins (five species) and temporary pools and springs (four species each). During this study Ae. aegypti was recovered from tyres in Mingora; it was not reported earlier from Swat.
The plant Artemisia vulgaris is a perennial weed, belongs to the family Asteraceae, and locally known as Tarkha in Dir and Swat regions of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (K.P.K), Pakistan. The present study aimed to evaluate the larvicidal activity of methanol extracts of roots, stem and leaves of Artemisia vulgaris against Culex quinquefasciatus. The 3rd and 4th instars larvae of Culex quinquefasciatus were exposed for 24 hours to various concentrations (50, 100, 500, 1000, and 1500 ppm) of methanol extracts of different parts of Artemisia vulgaris. The leaves extract resulted in significantly higher (P<0.05) mortality when compared to the mortality caused by the root and stem extracts. The LC50 value for roots extract was 9141.0 ppm, stem extract 2224.2 ppm and leaves extract 803.2 ppm. The findings of the present study presented the methanol extract of the leaves of Artemisia vulgaris as a good source of preparations for pest control especially mosquito control.