One in 20 homes in Bermuda have been found to be breeding mosquitoes, a Department of Health official claimed yesterday.

Environment health officer David Kendell was updating the community on efforts this summer to control the mosquito breeding - and he urged the public to be more aware.

He said the Department continued to do a lot of inspecting to keep the risk of mosquito carried diseases such as Dengue Fever and West Nile Virus at bay.

In the first six months of 2003, 13,766 inspections of properties had been performed, said Mr. Kendell.

"One in 20 properties have been found to be breeding mosquitoes and have received citations or cautions.

"This is a good result - it is a great improvement over 2002 when twice as many properties were offending in the same period.

"Properties that are found to be breeding mosquitoes are being targeted, revisited and rechecked as many times as needed in order to gain compliance with the Public Health (Mosquito Control) Regulations 1951."

Mr. Kendell said in some neighbourhoods residents continued to suffer from mosquito bites, however, and it was therefore vital that everyone now opened their eyes to potential mosquito breeding elsewhere and in particular on undeveloped or derelict sites in the neighbourhood and in the trees.

He said mosquito survival depended on the female insect finding water to lay her eggs.

"Mosquitoes are "unmatched experts" at finding accumulated water," he added.

"Unfortunately we are making it too easy for mosquitoes to find the water in which to breed and it seemed that wherever there is a tract of open space in Bermuda, there is a trash problem, and with that trash problem is the potential for a mosquito problem."

He said discarded items that have been found holding water and breeding mosquitoes included buckets, plastic cups, motorcycle parts, discarded appliances, tarpaulins and bottles.

This year was the first year that mosquitoes had been found breeding in bottles tossed in the bushes. "The fact that mosquitoes have not been detected in bottles before is primarily because our team has been concentrating on larger point sources," he said.

"As we tighten the net on Bermuda's mosquitoes, items of litter including bottles holding water have become our concern.

"Our Vector Control team endeavour to identify all the neighbourhoods in which trash is breeding mosquitoes.

"We are expecting our network of mosquito surveillance traps, already 12,000 checked per year, to help detect these hidden mosquito nests."

Mr. Kendall said he was urging everyone in the community, from Government Departments, to community groups and individual residents to clean up debris to prevent more trash being added to existing accumulations, thus curbing the breeding of mosquitoes.