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Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus in Bermuda: extinction, invasion, invasion and extinction

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Abstract

We provide an analysis of the invasion and spread of the container inhabiting mosquitoes Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus in the Bermuda Islands. Considered eradicated in the mid-1960s, A. aegypti was redetected in 1997, and A. albopictus was first detected in 2000. Based on weekly ovitrap data collected during the early stages of the invasion, we mapped the spread of Aedes throughout the islands. We analyzed the effects of buildings and roads on mosquito density and found a significant association between density and distance to roads, but not to buildings. We discuss the potential role of human transport in the rapid spread in the islands. The temporal correlation in ovitrap collection values decreased progressively, suggesting that habitat degradation due to control efforts were responsible for local shifts in mosquito densities. We report a sharp decrease in A. aegypti presence and abundance after the arrival of A. albopictus in the year 2000. Possible mechanisms for this rapid decline at relatively low density of the second invader are discussed in the context of classical competition theory and earlier experimental results from Florida, as well as alternative explanations. We suggest that support for the competition hypothesis to account for the decline of A. aegypti is ambiguous and likely to be an incomplete explanation.

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Acknowledgments

We thank Ross Furbert and his staff at the Vector Control unit, Bermuda Ministry of Health, for their kind cooperation and assistance. The Bermuda Institute of Ocean Sciences (BIOS) provided generous assistance to L. Kaplan’s travel to the site. Personnel at the Florida Medical Entomology Laboratory, especially G. F. O’Meara and L. P. Lounibos, provided valuable assistance during the establishment and maintenance of the competition experiment described in Table 2, and that research was supported by a grant from the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, Bureau of Entomology and Pest Control to T. Livdahl. We thank one anonymous reviewer and D. Simberloff for useful comments on the manuscript, and Mark Berman for his assistance with the Florida experiment. This research was supported by the National Institutes of Health (USA) (grant 1 R15 AI062712-01 to T. Livdahl) and the Keck Foundation.

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  1. Laran Kaplan

    Present address: Center for Vector Biology, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ, 08901, USA

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biology, Clark University, Worcester, MA, 01610, USA

    Laran Kaplan, Deborah Robertson, Todd Livdahl & Camilo Khatchikian

  2. Bermuda Ministry of Health, Point Finger Road, Bermuda, UK

    David Kendell

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  1. Laran Kaplan
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Correspondence to Todd Livdahl.

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Kaplan, L., Kendell, D., Robertson, D. et al. Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus in Bermuda: extinction, invasion, invasion and extinction. Biol Invasions 12, 3277–3288 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10530-010-9721-z

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