Larvovirous potencial of Poecilia reticulata at domestic biological control conditions

Configured as an important public health problem in the world, the dengue fever affects tropical countries, like Brazil. Biological control through the use of larvivorous fish appears as an alternative to reduce the infestation rates of the dengue vector. This work aims to evaluate and describe conditions under which Poecilia reticulata fishes can be used as biological controllers of Aedes aegypti in a domestic environment. Thus, the daily larvivorous potential (direct observation) of different groups of P. reticulata was calculated, considering the influence of sex and size of the used specimens. The test results revealed that P. reticulatalarvivorous potential ranges with sex, and found that the ability of the group composed only of females was about twice as high compared to that of males of the species.