Killgerm's Group Head of Technical Department, Matthew, will be leading a seminar at PPC Live called Options for mosquito management in the UK. We catch up with him to see what we should expect.

A bit of background on Matthew

I am the Head of Technical Department at Killgerm Chemicals Ltd, the Technical Editor for Pest Control News, Chair of the 9th International Conference on Urban Pests 2017 and hold a PhD from Aston University.

I studied for a Bsc (Hons) in Biology (with a year in industry at the Food and Environment Research Agency), at the University of York.

At Killgerm, I advise on all aspects of public health pest control, particularly entomology and provide pest control training, product testing, insect identification, pest control audits and technical literature.

My PhD research was on the isolation and characterisation of bacteria associated with flying insects in hospitals and I continue to collaborate with Aston University, currently co-supervising a PhD student investigating ‘The acquisition, incubation and transfer of bacteria by household insects and other arthropods.’

Why mosquitoes?

In terms of mosquitoes, Killgerm contribute to Mosquito Watch, has assisted production of guidance on the management of invasive species of mosquitoes, and run the ‘Killgerm certificate in mosquito management’ training course.

Part of Mosquito Watch’s work (in conjunction with Public Health England and the Chartered Institute of Environmental Health) is to obtain a better understanding of the incidence of nuisance mosquitoes that are biting humans in the UK and make entries into a dedicated database to record the incidences of mosquitoes nationally.

As well as the mosquito species we already have in the UK, the possibility exists for the importation of exotic mosquitoes that could cause a greater biting nuisance and may become involved in the transmission of infectious diseases. These species should be spotted before they take hold and for Mosquito Watch to act as an ‘early warning system’, the efforts of pest controllers, environmental health practitioners and members of the public are required.

What are we going to learn?

I want to impart some simple practical information regarding the options for mosquito control that are available in the UK. Understanding which insecticides are available for their control is going to be very important in coming years.

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