Teams of health department workers were back out on the road yesterday seeking out and eliminating the main source for mosquito breeding - stagnant water.

The staff have been visiting households advising the occupants on how to reduce the breeding of mosquitoes. And if that advise falls on deaf ears and the occupants continue to offend there is the power to prosecute, with a $168 fine for the first time offender and a $420 fine for a subsequent conviction.

"We're very happy with the response so far. If we analyse our statistics from two years ago we found, on average, 15 percent of households were breeding mosquitoes, but that number is five or six percent," said David Kendell, Environmental Heath Officer, Supervisor of Pest Control.

"We're seeing a reduction of roughly half and we're seeing some really good results. However, at the same time, with those people who are blatant mosquito breeders - those hoarding water for whatever reason in barrels or buckets - the message seems to be getting through a little bit more slowly.

"The other thing we find is people with large property or a house with many apartments where nobody feels they have ownership, there is diminished responsibility and it is hard to find somebody to take responsibility."

The campaign by the Health Department was launched at the end of 2000 but actually kicking off in earnest in early 2001. About 12 men were out on the field yesterday as Mondays is their main day for for visiting houses.

"We've checked over 5,000 houses since January 1," explained Mr. Kendell.

"Bermuda has roughly 17,000 houses so we are about a third of the way there. Our goal is to get to all 17,000 this year."

Dion Burgess and Keith Godwin found a dome tank in Pembroke which allowed access to mosquitoes. He advised the occupant of the house and put some mullets into the tank to eat any larvae.

"I would put about ten or 15, an equal ration of male and female mullets," explained Mr. Burgess, who added the Health Department staff often face challenges with big dogs in yards.

"We always go to the front door first, you never know what is waiting for you around the back," he says of the golden rule of house visits.

Mr. Kendell did admit a lot of useful information has come in from members of the public, so the messages are being heeded.

"Children are the best to target because adults tend to have a priority list where mosquitoes are somewhere down the bottom, with all the stresses of daily life," he stated.

"We've been to all the schools and will go back to the schools. If you tell a schoolchild that mosquitoes are important so go and tip out the water, they will put it at the top of their priority list and do something about it. That's what we want to instil in the next generation."

Mosquitoes can transmit disease and the female Aedes aegypti can transmit dengue fever and dengue haemorrhage fever if it bites a person in the infective stage of dengue. Presently there are no known cases of dengue fever in Bermuda.

"The worst case scenario is somebody would come back from travelling in the tropics and introduce the virus (dengue) to our mosquitoes," explained Mr. Kendell.

"Then they (mosquitoes) will pass it on to other people. If we can keep the (mosquito) numbers down low enough - even if somebody was to come back with dengue fever - it shouldn't spread as rapidly or if it does spread, be contained.

"It is a serious disease, we have the vector (carrier of the disease) now and our surveillance has to be at a new level, and that's following World Health Organisation guidelines."

Added Mr. Kendell: "Today is the 'Monday Run' as we call it and every Monday we pick a postcode and today we are in CR04 which is around Bailey's Bay. We have about 12 men in the field and for the remainder four days we have about six men in the field."

The staff members also do paperwork of their findings and if there are repeat offenders, steps will be taken to prosecute.

"The first time they get a caution, which is a letter pointing out that mosquitoes have been found and that they need to go and look around their property," explained Mr. Kendell.

"The second time we go back, if they haven't remedied the items pointed out on the caution then we actually leave them a citation, which is the Public Health Mosquito Control Regulations 1951 under the Public Health Act, 1949.

"The citation says if they don't remedy things they are liable to be fined. The third time we go back - we try to do it within a month - we actually take the mosquito larvae because mosquito regulations say they are direct evidence that there is a contravention of the regulations. We will then make up a case file and will send that through to DPP."

Mr. Kendell says prosecution is often the last resort, that educating the offender is more important.

"We really are serious about holding people accountable and asking them to comply with the law," he assured.

"The fine isn't very much, and if somebody wants to plead not guilty they will have their day in court. The bottom line for us is not prosecuting people, we're trying to get people to comply and make them understand why this is important."

Mr. Kendell's remembers a situation where the department was alerted to the bus stop opposite Elbow Beach where mosquitoes were breeding in discarded coffee cups behind the wall. The result was people waiting for the bus were being bitten.

"We do encourage people to continue to do that, that really is the best information and we always follow up on that," Mr. Kendell assured.

"We do have people calling in who are being bitten by mosquitoes and children going to the clinic with bites all over their legs. Even if we find a neighbour who is non-compliant and we take them to court, the $168 fine is not going to make up for all the suffering those people have had to endure.

"It's quite commonsense stuff, none of it is rocket science. It's about being on top of any accumulating water."

The messages the Health Department staff is trying to get across to the public is:

•Allowing mosquito to breed on your property is an offence.

•This mosquito is a container-breeding mosquito, it doesn't breed in marshes or puddles, but on anything that has a hard vertical surface on which it can stick its egg.

•A small cup of water is suitable for a mosquito to lay its eggs. Even trash in the trees are a main source if it collects water.

• Mosquito eggs are resistant to drying. The larvae will die if the water is poured out of a container but the eggs can survive for up to a year.