Enlist nature in fight versus dengue
WHERE are the dragon flies, spiders, frogs, bats that used to abound in Iloilo in our childhood? They are gone now. Or so it seems. By childhood, I am referring to the era of "young once" of media veterans of Iloilo like Herbert V, Pidro J and yours truly, of the '50s, '60s and '70s. And even '80s. Chemical-dependent farming system obliterated them. Other human activities misnamed "development" deprived them of their habitat and the conditions necessary for their survival. Seeking their whereabouts today is as urgent as seeking and destroying breeding places of diseases-carrying mosquitoes, particularly, Aedes egyptii and Aedes albopictus , two strains that spread the virus that causes dengue hemorrhagic fever, or simply, dengue. Chemical inputs might have raised farm production but the downside is it engendered problems like the decimation of natural predators that control pests. Before chemical farming, rice planting season was not re